LifeAid Emergency Care

19/02/2026

The brief: Paramedicine, but make it pastoral 🚑🌾🐮

Not every shift happens under fluorescent lights, that’s for sure!

Our crews at Tallangatta have been supporting fire and field teams across classic high-country terrain.

Really proud of the LifeAid crews doing what they do best.

16/02/2026

💪 ❤️

10/02/2026

- A Brief History of Fireground Medical Support in Victoria -

Fireground medical services in Victoria have evolved in response to experience, inquiry, and operational need.

Following the 2009 Victorian bushfires and the findings of the Black Saturday Royal Commission, there was widespread recognition that firefighter safety required more than reactive emergency response. Medical risk on the fireground needed to be anticipated, not just managed after injury occurred.

Early models focused on establishing a medical presence at base camps and planned operations. This first aid and welfare support improved outcomes during extended deployments and represented a significant step forward from having no dedicated medical capability embedded within bushfire operations.

As fire seasons grew longer and more complex, limitations in these early models became increasingly visible. Firefighters were operating further from assured ambulance access. Injuries occurred in dynamic, remote environments where extraction required both clinical judgement and specialised vehicle capability. Medical risk was not confined to base camps.

By the late 2010s, this gap had become difficult to ignore. Informal escalation pathways existed, but they were not a substitute for a defined, mobile, fireground-capable medical service.

In response, Enhanced Medical Services were formally introduced during the 2021–22 fire season. This model integrated paramedics, qualified first responders, and 4WD patient transport into bushfire operations. It was designed around mobility, integration with incident management teams, and readiness aligned to forecast risk.

A defining feature of this model was anticipatory capability. Stand-by arrangements recognised that effective response depends on personnel and vehicles being positioned before an incident, not summoned after conditions deteriorate.

Following an initial trial, this Enhanced Medical Services model was reaffirmed for the 2022–23 fire season. Its continuation reflected an understanding that fireground medical support had matured beyond static first aid toward a more integrated operational capability.

Over time, language and classifications have continued to evolve, reflecting broader changes in operating environments and administrative frameworks. Throughout these shifts, the underlying driver has remained consistent: adapting medical support to match the realities of modern fire behaviour and firefighter risk.

Fireground medical services are, at their core, a product of learning. They exist because experience demanded them.

Photos from Andy Close’s archives, 2019-2020 fires

05/02/2026

As long fire campaigns stretches on, one of the most dangerous phases doesn’t always look dramatic - it’s once the flames have reduced to embers and the smoke is settling at the back end of a campaign.

Burnt and compromised trees. Root systems weakened by weeks of heat. Branches that appear stable until they aren’t. Crews working through fatigue, changing conditions, and the slow grind of mop-up and patrol.

Hazardous trees don’t announce themselves. They wait. Tree strikes are not a theoretical risk. It is a real, life-altering hazard that can present after the main fire activity has passed.

What’s confronting is how quietly it can unfold. An injury away from the fire front. Time stretching while decisions are made. Support that may be nearby, but not always activated, or response that is otherwise delayed. Outcomes shaped not by intent, but by systems under strain.

As we move through mop-up, patrol, and demobilisation phases, hazardous tree awareness, fatigue management, and access to timely medical support matter more, not less.

Because surviving the fire front should never mean being left vulnerable once the smoke thins.

04/02/2026

Remote deployments do strange things to people. Suddenly you’re emotionally attached to someone else’s truck.

Just goes to show, not all crushes are complicated. Some of them are just… Unimogs 🥰😍

Photo from Andy’s archives ❤️❤️

30/01/2026

There’s a crucial distinction in bushfire medical support:

Base camp health monitoring helps when crews are rotating in and out.

Embedded fireground medical response is ideal for when the incident is still unfolding, access is complex, and clinical care has to move with operations.

Fireground medical work happens across multiple locations, shifting risk, and changing pace, often long before a patient can be handed over to conventional pathways.

Both matter. The goal is simple: keep firefighters supported, treated early, and transported safely when needed, without adding friction to operations.

30/01/2026

Fireline medicine is a supporting layer inside the incident system.

The best deployments are the ones where clinicians, Ops, Safety and AV escalation pathways work in step, quietly reducing friction before it becomes evacuation.

Collaboration is a superpower.

15/01/2026

We’re recruiting for a Training & Programs Administration Coordinator to be based full time at our HQ in Croydon South, Victoria.

This role sits at the centre of how our training programs actually run — supporting student onboarding, client bookings, course administration, and the quiet systems that make everything work.

We’re looking for someone who:
- enjoys bringing order to complex processes
- cares about people having a good experience
- values doing things properly, not quickly for the sake of it
- takes quiet pride in being reliable, organised, and trusted

This is not a high-turnover admin role or a stepping-stone position. It’s a role for someone who wants to settle in, build strong systems, and be genuinely relied upon by trainers, clients, and students.

If this sounds like you — or someone you know — you can find the full role details on Seek.

📍 Croydon South, Victoria
🕘 Full time
📩 Applications via Seek

The Training & Programs Administration Coordinator supports the administration and coordination of our training programs.

14/01/2026

A quiet thank you to our LifeAid crews — and to the families and workplaces who support them — for the vigilance, readiness and flexibility they bring during our work during fire season.

Being on standby, adapting to changing conditions, and staying prepared over long days (and nights) is not easy.

Grateful to be working alongside so many committed people across emergency response at the moment ❤️

12/01/2026

LifeAid teams are currently deployed and operationally ready in accordance with incident management arrangements, providing fireline medical and health monitoring support where requested.

Our focus is on firefighter safety, fatigue management, and integration within established command and control structures.

Crews remain available until formal stand-down as determined by incident requirements.

24/12/2025

Christmas looks different depending on where you’re standing.

For some, it’s family and food.
For others, it’s a shift change, a radio check, or a long drive home.

To our clinicians, instructors, partners, and families — thank you for the work you do, seen and unseen, at this time of year and all year.

Stay safe. Take care of each other.

— LifeAid