Sixteen volunteers from across the Rural Fire Service's Mid North Coast region have been deployed to assist their fellow volunteer fire fighters at Hervey Bay in Queensland.
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The volunteers were part of a team of 30 RFS members on a chartered flight that left Port Macquarie airport on Wednesday evening. They will join 11 NSW RFS fire trucks from the Mid North Coast, Lower Hunter and Central Coast fire districts.
Volunteers were from RFS brigades from King Creek, Wauchope, Lake Cathie, Green Point and Gloucester.
RFS district manager Stuart Robb said the volunteers would be assisting Queensland Fire Service with the devastating fires around the Hervey Bay region.
"Our role will be to support crews on the ground in Hervey Bay and to provide them some welcome relief to volunteers within Queensland Fire Service," he said.
"The Queensland crews have been extremely busy over the last couple of days.
"We understand that not everyone has a bad time of it at the same time, so our volunteers are more than happy to help our Queensland friends.
"We've had them (Queensland volunteers) in NSW and helping us out in previous years.
"All our volunteers are ground crew while we will also be providing an air-based manager to bolster their air crews."
Mr Robb said at least one LAT (large air tanker) was already deployed.
A chartered flight from Sydney picked up Central Coast and Lower Hunter volunteers in Newcastle before stopping in Port Macquarie.
The total deployment was 30 volunteers, Mr Robb said.
The NSW crews would be on the ground on Thursday. They will return on Sunday night.
Mr Robb said despite the deployment, there were still enough volunteers and crews on the ground across the Mid Coast to combat any local fires.
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