Released 11/12/2019
A helicopter with Specialist Intelligence Gathering (SIG) capabilities has arrived at the ACT Rural Fire Service Helibase and is ready to help protect Canberra this bushfire season.
The SIG helicopter has been named ‘Firebird 100’ by owners Microflite with a new bright yellow flames paint job to match.
Firebird 100 provides real time streaming and scanning of any hotspots for potential fires with infrared cameras. The footage and data captured by Firebird 100’s camera is sent into the ESA’s Incident Management Team in real time.
This allows for the ESA to quickly identify fires and alert the community, accurately map the location of the fire and inform the deployment of firefighting resources. The helicopter can also water-bomb fires.
Last bushfire season the helicopter spotted a number of fires and enabled our emergency services to bring them under control very early, before they grew too large to be easily managed.
The ACT Government has contracted the helicopter from Microflight as part of national arrangements to further boost our bushfire fighting capabilities.
It’s an invaluable asset to the ACT community and is one of many initiatives the ACT Government has funded to protect Canberrans throughout the bushfire season, including recent recruitment of 20 new ACT Fire & Rescue firefighters.
This is a timely reminder for all Canberrans to be bushfire ready and to complete their Bushfire Survival Plan which can be downloaded at esa.act.gov.au.
- Statement ends -
Mick Gentleman, MLA | Media Releases
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