Brigades welcome operations control van

Albany’s volunteer bushfire brigades have been boosted with the arrival of a new forward control vehicle for the bushfire season.

The new van, worth $76,000, was officially unveiled yesterday at a City of Albany function at the Town Square.

The vehicle replaces the dated incident control van, which has served the City of Albany for 14 years, and comes equipped with valuable communications equipment required to respond to major incidents across the region.

More than 50 businesses and organisations helped raise $73,000 including the City volunteer brigades which contributed about $10,000.

Last fire season volunteer firefighters spent more than 5560 hours fighting 110 fires in the district.