Vic: Elvis to tour Victoria
MELBOURNE, Dec 12 AAP - Elvis the helitanker has begun a three-month tour of country Victoria.
The Erickson S-64 F Air Crane Helitanker landed at Melbourne's Essendon Airport todayon loan for 98 days to help the state get through the bushfire season.
Elvis is capable of dumping 9,000 litres of water at a time on fires and has provedinvaluable in dousing bushfire outbreaks in NSW and Victoria.
On loan from Oregon in the United States, the helitanker will be leased jointly bythe Country Fire Authority (CFA) and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
"As we head into what is likely to be a season of severe bushfire danger, it's goodto see Elvis back in Victoria," Environment and Water Minister John Thwaites said.
Elvis was recently joined by a new US super helicopter, The Wild Thing, which is capableof carrying more than 2,500 litres of water using only half the fuel of other aircraftits size, to fight the bushfires around Sydney.
AAP svm/gfr/jnb/br
KEYWORD: ELVIS VIC
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