DEFENCE MEDIA RELEASE
Issued by Ministerial Support and Public Affairs, Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999, Fax: 02 6265 1545
MSPA 391/09
Saturday, 14 November 2009
AUSTRALIAN FIRE TRUCK READY FOR SERVICE IN SAMOA
An Australian fire truck is settling into its new home in tsunami devastated Samoa, after being
officially handed over by the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) at a special ceremony
held at the Apia Fire Station.
The fire truck was delivered to Samoa earlier this week by the Royal Australian Navy’s heavy
landing ship HMAS Tobruk as part of a large humanitarian consignment of goods donated by the
Australian Government, Non-Government Organisations and the Australian public.
The keys to the $400,000 donated fire truck were handed over by Kevin Ottrey from the MFB to
the Commissioner of Samoa’s Fire and Emergency Services, Tony Hill.
“It’s given the Fire Service a real big boost just to have this appliance here, particularly as the
technology behind the appliance is far greater than what we have at the moment”, Commissioner
Hill said.
“We’re just looking forward to being able to be trained up by colleagues from the Melbourne
Metropolitan Fire Brigade to teach us how to use this truck to its full capacity”.
Australia’s High Commissioner to Samoa, Matt Anderson said the fire truck has been named in
honour of local Fire Fighter Peter Letiu who lost his life in the service of his country on the day of
the tsunami.
The Samoan Minister for Police, Fire and Prisons, Toleafoa Faafisi thanked the Australian people
for their generosity in assisting the Samoan people rebuild their lives after the devastating
tsunami.
“It’s a need not only for our government but also for our people to have enough equipment like the
truck and all those other things handed over today, we are very thankful Australia”.
The delivery of this relief package will bring the total assistance by the Australian Government,
non government organisations and Australian communities to Samoa and Tonga to $13 million.
HMAS Tobruk has departed Samoa and is currently en route to the Tongan island of Niuatoputapu
for the second phase of its relief operation.
Media Note:
Vision will be fed to Parliament House at 1000 and imagery is available at:
Media contact:
Defence Media Liaison:
(02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664
Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade Media
0409 354 077
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