Emergency Services

Australia's patchwork of emergency service capabilities differs from state to state. In Victoria, only two CFA brigades have specialised large animal rescue units and they are travelling long distances to save lives.

As the NSW government announces a series of new ambulance stations across the state, a Broken Hill paramedics union delegate says their station is well overdue for an update to help accommodate an influx of staff.

Large plumes of thick, black smoke are visible in western Victoria after an accident involving two B-double trucks on the Western Highway.

Two people have been taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation after the Canberra Services Club was engulfed in flames for the second time in 15 years, the first being in 2011 when a fire gutted the Manuka headquarters. 

Emergency flood warnings remain in place in parts of NSW, as the search for a 26-year-old woman missing in the Hunter region resumes this morning.

In Indonesia, firefighters do not just battle flames — they pick up school report cards, banish ghosts, and comfort the broken-hearted. But these acts of public service throw a spotlight on other problems.

A man dies in a glider crash on Queensland's Darling Downs, the second fatal aviation crash in the region in the less than two weeks.

Di Tynan is still the beating heart of her NT volunteer fire brigade, 40 years after building the station from scrap metals and rag-tag donations.

Six people are taken to hospital after a minibus rolls 50 metres down an embankment on the way to a wedding.

A 29-year-old man allegedly wanted for serious crimes remains in hospital after being shot by an officer in the city over the weekend, as civil libertarians renew calls for a review into police shootings.

Three years after he suffered near-fatal burns, Andrew Gibson says he is ready to take back his life by travelling Australia but first wanted to thank his rescuers.

Residents in a WA tourism hub say poor phone and internet connectivity issues left a family in a life-threatening situation as a bushfire swept through their property.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau believes two men killed in a plane crash near Oakey were conducting mandatory pilot instrument landing training moments before the disaster.

Two men have died in a plane crash at Oakey, west of Brisbane.

This hybrid electric fire truck was celebrated on arrival but questions remain over its value for money. 

After the Royal Flying Doctor Service saved their children's lives, Kym Reilly and Erin McPherson hope their 26km run through bushland north of Perth will help raise much-needed funds. 

More than 1,000 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire, with nine injured, according to the local authority. 

A doctor who amputated the leg of a Lithuanian rafter to free him from rapids in Tasmania's Franklin River has been awarded the Life Saving Cross in Vilnius.

When his neighbour's shed burst into flames in the middle of the night, Michael Cockburn rushed to help — but poor mobile coverage meant his calls to triple-0 went in vain.

The SES and the Bureau of Meteorology are warning severe weather set to hit the state this week could see huge rainfall all along the NSW coast.