Two extreme weather events just months apart have led Wyndham SES to reassess the way it responds to call-outs.
Unit commander Laurie Russell said a storm last week resulted in the volunteers responding to 86 call-outs from residents who had sustained damage to their homes. An earlier storm on March 18 also resulted in a high volume of call-outs.
But Mr Russell said it isn’t the number of calls, it’s the amount of damage that was done to each property, that was causing concern.
Mr Russell, a founding member of the local SES in 1982, said that these days there were new factors leading to dramatic changes in the nature of call-outs.
He said the SES was attending more homes that required volunteers to access roofs, so discussions about volunteer safety were needed.
“Solar panels are our biggest issue,” he said. “Years ago, we didn’t have solar panels. Now we have them being ripped off houses.”
Rooftop satellite dishes are also proving to be an issue for the SES.
Tarneit has the highest number of solar panels out of any Victorian town or suburb with 5980. Werribee has the third highest number, with 5400.
Mr Russell said that while Wyndham’s population had skyrocketed since 1982, the number of SES volunteers hadn’t changed much. The unit currently has 37 members.
“The majority of our call-outs come from Point Cook, Tarneit and Truganina, which was all farmland years ago,” he said.
“We have struggled to get volunteers from those areas to keep volunteering because it is too far from Werribee and Wyndham Vale [where the SES stations are located].”
The state government did not respond to Star Weekly’s request for comment by deadline.
