Busy start to new year

The focus will be on search, storm, car vs house, first aid and fire.

Mandurah SES manager Chris Stickland said a training exercise was planned later in the year that would involve local emergency services such as the SES, Water Rescue and Surf Life Saving, with the focus on water.

Last year Mandurah SES attended more than 44 events, including storm damage, deployment/retrieval of equipment and personnel, cars hitting houses and missing people/forensic searches.

The call-outs were not just in the Mandurah area but included Sawyers Valley, Bakers Hill and Bullsbrook, with storm damage in particular involving dozens of jobs requiring many hours of work for volunteers rotating in rosters.

Although January should have been a rest month for the volunteers, it did not turn out that way.

Mandurah volunteers were heavily involved with the Waroona Yarloop bushfires, with duties including at the incident control centre, supplying lighting, welfare and transport for evacuees and fire crews to and from the fire front.

Next month the Mandurah SES will move to new headquarters opposite Challenger Institute of Technology.