In the 50/50 section Herald Sun, 31st January 2006 (again), reader Doug Townsley refers to another reader's question, why the Australian Army weren't helping fight fires, by suggesting it was for the "same reason we didn't sent the CFA to East Timor".
I would imagine having extra people pointing hoses at fires can only help, whereas sending untrained people to war is tantamount to murder. Now whether there are enough hoses to go around is another matter...
(For the overseas readers, the CFA is the Country Fire Authority, one of the two fire-fighting organisations in Victoria.)