Bushfire preparations have been boosted in regional South Australia, thanks to a donation from the state’s largest retirement living and aged services provider.
Mallala and Districts Lions Club has received from ECH a donation of 100 ‘bushfire bags’ in readiness for this summer’s bushfire season.
Each bushfire bag consists of a waterproof, duffle-style bag filled with clean and near-new wool blankets that were surplus to ECH’s needs, along with a wind-up torch, radio and hard hat.
The bushfire bags will be taken to the Lions Club’s purpose-built Emergency Relief and Command Centre in Mallala, then distributed to farmers and local residents across fire danger areas that were previously impacted by the Pinery bushfires, with the support of Kadina’s Lions Club members.
“Assistance and generosity have been at the core of our organisation since we were founded some 60 years ago,” said ECH CEO Claire Scapinello.
“We believe that it’s important to support the communities in which ECH’s customers and team members live and work, so we’re thrilled that we could donate these bushfire bags to a recipient as worthy as the Mallala and Districts Lions Club,” she said.
Gerry van Niekerk, Lions Club’s South Australian Disaster Relief Coordinator, thanked ECH for the much-needed donation.
“As a community organisation, we are entirely dependent on the generosity of organisations like ECH, whose donation of 100 bushfire bags will help us prepare farmers and local residents in the event of a bushfire this summer,” he said.
“Mallala and Districts Lion Club supported hundreds of displaced residents and volunteer firefighters in the wake of the Pinery bushfires. With our Emergency Relief and Command Centre now established, we can increase our response and better support the community in the event of any future natural disaster.”
Mallala and Districts Lions Club opened the Emergency Relief and Command Centre in November 2023, eight years on from the horrific Pinery bushfire which burnt through more than 250 square kilometres of the Adelaide Plains, destroying homes and claiming lives.
Believed to be the only one of its kind in regional South Australia, the centre was designed to support emergency services in a major event. It is equipped with a commercial kitchen, meeting room, two large screen TVs for news and emergency services programming, a communication room, bathroom, heating and cooling, and internet access – all powered by a generator at the flick of a switch.
Article published in the Sunday Mail (August 2024)