Darlington Volunteer Bushfire Brigade
0417 922 285
Pine Terrace,
P.O. Box 164
Darlington,
W.A. 6070
To provide accurate and timely intelligence to the incident management team from aerial observation.
In 1995 the Bush Fire Service of W.A. asked the Darlington Brigade if it would operate their Forward Control Point unit. At that period of time not many local shires had their own FCP units and at major fires the Bush Fire Service would despatch and utilize its own FCP as command centre for the Incident Command System.
Darlington volunteers manned the unit on a rostered call out basis. In 1998 as most local government shires in the Swan Region now had their own FCP units this command unit was relocated to the Geraldton region for their use.
The Air Reconnaissance Unit formed in 1997 determined to relocate from the Bush Fire Services headquarters’ to a BFS brigade station and as they had no ground base it was decided that the communications team from Darlington would now become part of that group, and formed the nucleus of its volunteer base.
The requirement for this role (Air Reconnaissance) was seen as an essential tool in the wildfire suppression portfolio, with the lack of intelligence flow from fire ground to incident control being the catalyst. The Air Operations Group was established and the Air Observers began their training.
HUET(Helicopter Underwater Escape Training) and flying training in both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft was undertaken.
The mission statement adopted by the FESA Air Reconnaissance Unit is:
“TO PROVIDE ACCURATE AND TIMELY INTELLIGENCE TO THE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM FROM AERIAL OBSERVATION”
Aims, Fire, Equipment, FAQ, Our Brigade, Air Wing,