Light Tanker Competition 20 October 2007

Another year, another Light Tanker competition.  Last year’s winners (Claremont Volunteer Fire Brigade) obviously worked very hard on this year’s competition.  The Wellington team started off optimistic and hopeful, and for once we didn’t end up to disappointed! 

The day started out like any other fire or event….. waiting waiting waiting! Once everyone had arrived the briefing started, two brigades had dropped out which was good news for us because it was two brigades who are usually up there in the final rankings so it gave us a bit of a confidence boost.  Incident Action Plans were handed out and attached to each one was a grid reference with our first stand number on it.  After a slight hiccup early on (our radio decided to stop working, luckily there was someone on hand to fix it) we set off.  We didn’t have to travel far to our first stand which was only about 500 m away from the station!  First up we had to do a hose drill which we could have done better at but the wind got the better of us and I just couldn’t get enough water pressure on the target to knock it off the bucket!  While Richard and I did the hose drill Jason was tasked with answering a few questions then had to bowl out a 64mm Duraline hose through two witches hats.... good effort but fell just short with the hose veering off to the left right before the witches hat!  Over all we weren’t to upset with our performance and were in high spirits as we moved on to our next stand, which was an excellent display of the thought that went into the planning of this years event.  It was something that may very well have to be done in real life but something we probably don’t think about to often.

As we drove up to stand number two for the day we came across what we thought was going to be the driving course.  We were soon corrected when we were handed the scenario sheet telling us that we needed to build a dam strong enough and big enough to hold a full tank of water (approx 600 litres) and be at least 15cm deep.  We were able to use anything around us (they usually plant useful items in the surrounding area), so we did a quick recco and then the clock started and off we went!  The area had a lot of natural resources that could help us.  There were lots of holes and mounds of dirt that we could utilise for dam walls so we set about pulling tarps out and gathering all the rocks, and logs and branches and bits and pieces that we could to build up the walls.  We had a little fumble when Jason put a hose down that he thought was turned off and ended up with an face full of water (Sam caught it all on video so I’m sure the footage can be found somewhere on this site!) other than that we did well and were proud of our efforts once the dam was complete and full.  Our dam passed the test and we set about packing up and moving on to the next stage still pretty happy with ourselves.  The day went better than I thought it might, we were really disappointed with the draughting stand.  We had the theory of the exercise right, we knew exactly what we needed to do we just couldn’t make it work.  Having approximately 40 years service between us obviously didn’t help us in this case.  It was very frustrating because we were doing everything right it just wouldn’t work.  I guess that was a simulation of real life in itself as things don’t always go to plan or work out the way they are written in the books when you are out on the fire ground!

We kind of redeemed ourselves by doing better than expected in a couple of areas we weren’t confident in, First Aid for example, where we probably didn’t help the asthmatic as much as we could have as we treated him in the exact opposite way than we should have!  And it took us a little while to work out that one of the patients was deaf but except for the asthma I think we treated all patients well enough to keep them going till the ambo’s arrived.  We also scored top marks at the chainsaw stand.  I haven’t picked up a chainsaw for about 3 years but Jason and I did read the course book the night before so was able to get through the questions with a bit of confidence in what we answered. 

We also did well in the Driving component.  Richard and I sent Jason off to do the practical while we answered the questions, I think there was only one that we got wrong which was at what distance should you turn down your high beam…. I answered 600m but the answer was 400m, I think I should have been given points for being cautious.  I think we were also duded on the novelty event (which I’m sure there are photos of… unfortunately!)

Historically the best event of the day is always the novelty event, it is always fun and always a bit of a laugh, in the past I’ve herded cows (I’m not joking!), stacked beer cans and dressed dummy’s (mannequins not the people I was with!) but this years was pretty cool.  One person had to answer questions (which was originally going to be me till I had a pregnant blonde moment and changed sides!) while two people had to travel around a course (artistically set out in the shape of a T, F, S, which stands for Tasmania Fire Service for those of you who didn’t get it) collecting objects out of tyres…. sounds pretty tame right…. well the two people travelling around the course had to use a wheel barrow, one sitting in it (me) and the other pushing (Richard), the objects we had to collect were things like a little plastic ball, a roll of toilet paper, a helmet, a torch, a can (I noticed it was lemonade… not beer) a hose key, a stump vice thingy, and a couple of other things.  I know that this still sounds like a pretty easy task but I had to collect all these things using a tool used by the fire service to spike into ceilings and pull plaster down.  It has a blunt point on it which is about an inch long, then coming off one side is a hook, this is attached to a broom handle and is actually very awkward to try and hook into things.  We didn’t realise we were supposed to do it as fast as we could and thought we had 15 minutes to complete the course so we just cruised around…. we could have done way better but oh well, I think Richard did an excellent job considering he was pushing 1 and a half people around (I’m 4 ½ months pregnant).

We somehow managed to be the first team back to the station after all stands were complete, this left us wondering if we’d missed something off or forgotten to do something.  Eventually everyone else made it back and we got down to business.  Tom walked around with the wooden spoon for awhile (which is given to last place) and that made me a little bit nervous about who he might be presenting it to, however I’d just like to say sucked in to Risdon Vale who quite cockily pointed out publicly that apparently the ‘right brigade was already holding it’ and yet when it came time to hand it out Risdon Vale took it home…. enjoy boys, hope you don’t get it again next year!

Congrats goes out to Mt Nelson who took home first place and now become our hosts for next year.  Wellington didn’t do to badly, we came fourth so that’s a lot better than where we placed last year.  We are aiming for second place next year.  We have already started working out our strategies!!!

Congrats must also go out to Claremont Volunteers and their Junior Brigade for the effort they all put in to making the day a success that didn’t run over time for once and that was fun from start to finish.  Oh and I will always remember that the name given to a chopper that is observing the fire is Bird Dog!

By Kate P.



AFAC/CRC Bushfire Conference 2007

On 20 – 21 September 2007 I had the privilege of attending the AFAC/CRC Bushfire Conference 2007.  I was a little sceptical at first, especially as I thought there had been some mistake made and that I wasn’t really supposed to be there, but apparently I was.  I had been invited along with a number of other volunteers from over the state to partake in this annual conference.  Being a conference virgin I didn’t really know what to expect so I hesitantly crept into the Hobart Grand Chancellor on Wednesday 19/9/07 after work to register.  I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t know where to go and I’d be wandering around like a lost child… However I was quickly put at ease by huge signs pointing me in the right direction and well as a number of familiar faces (from the TFS office) all decked out in lovely red jumpers with devil faces on them floating around handing out bags and name tags. 

So the first step under my belt I headed home to prepare myself for an early start on Thursday morning.  Jason (my partner) was not impressed, now everyone knows neither of us are morning people and I don’t think he really enjoyed having to get up an extra half hour earlier to drive me into town!!!  Oh well he’ll get over it!!  Anyway I get to the Grand Chancellor and walk in, about a million people were wandering around all chirpy (seriously who is chirpy that early in the morning!!) chatting to people from all over the country and world!  I was very nervous by this stage because I didn’t know a soul and had no one to chat to let a lone be chirpy with.  So there I was standing on the 1^st floor of the hotel looking like a shag on a rock when I bumped into Ian Wade from Collinsvale…. thank god I knew someone! And not only that he informed me that Lyndsay Suhr (our illustrious Group Officer) wasn’t far away… and sure enough there he was tea in hand.  So we had quick introductions and discussions about what sessions we all planned to go to for the morning.  Then we were all herded into the Federation Concert Hall for the opening ceremony.  After all the speeches we were treated to a performance by some drummers who were brilliant, they were very involved in their performance and very enthusiastic (My head pounded to the beat of their drums for the rest of the day!).  The Conference was officially opened and we got down to business.  First up was an informative and funny talk from Kevin Brame, Deputy Chief of the North Las Vegas Fire Department.  In my first session I was wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into because it was all very scientific and I understood about 4 words for the whole 25 minutes (that was when he introduced himself!).  It would have been informative if I understood what he was talking about. 

It picked up after that.  I learnt all sorts of things and was able to get a look at the way other agencies do things.  I heard about things I had never even considered as a front line firey.  Things that the people controlling the incidents have to take into consideration when making the decisions they do.  The best sessions of the whole two days would have been the ones about how people think when faced with a major bushfire.  I know I haven’t really given it a thought before about how scary and confronting it must be to have to make the decision about whether or not to leave your home or stay and defend.  Dr Kat Haynes gave an excellent presentation on the Trends in Fatalities in the past 100 years.  About the difference if any between the places people unfortunately perish during bushfires and most of them being women and children trying to flee at the last minute.  Not only did she look at the numbers of people (males’ vs. females and age’s groups) but she looked at where they perished.  For example in cars only metres from their homes, either having run out of petrol or crashing the vehicle or simply being overcome.  Not being prepared for what happened was also another factor as well as being misinformed or thinking they knew exactly what they were in for.  Following Dr Haynes’ presentation was one about the decisions families make during bushfires.  This was an excellent follow on because it looked at how families came about the decisions they had made.  Mae, the presenter, looked at the South Australian fires of 2001 (I think).  As part of her study she went and spent about 9 months or so in the town affected and got to know the town and the people as well as their stories about that fateful fire.  It was surprising to learn that some people still hadn’t really changed their attitudes about how they would prepare, thinking that it won’t happen to them or that they are adequately prepared.  It was also interesting to learn how some people came up with the reasoning that they did for where they should go or what they should do. 

The conference was an excellent experience and if you ever get the opportunity to go I definitely recommend that you do, especially the dinner, if for nothing else it is worth the sight of all these people of authority (the people you take orders from on the fireground) dancing around after a few beers or glasses of bubbly under their belts!!! Hilarious!!


By Kate P.

1 st Blog

This is the first blog entry for the new Wellington Fire Brigade site and doesn’t it look fantastic!!  A lot has happened over the last 12 months or so and I won’t go into all of it now (partly because my memory is shocking and I probably don’t remember everything!!) but here is a bit to keep you updated on the brigade.

Ok… hmmm where should I start?  Well 12 months ago the station was looking a bit bare (people wise) as the number of members had dwindled to a low, we were forced to say farewell to a few good members who moved on to newer interests or to spend more time with family.  Thankfully we have got one member back (welcome back Woolley) and numbers have picked up dramatically, with new members Sean, Cameron L, Brendan and Derek.  This has probably been the most we have recruited in one year and all new members have launched themselves in to learning all the basic skills and advancing themselves through the courses.  We have also, in the last few months, farewelled a very long serving member in William (Bill) Johnson.  Bill first attended Glenorchy Fire Brigade when it was still that little shed on Chapel St in 1983, which gives him a total of 24 years service which is a huge commitment by anyone’s standards.  Bill decided to hang up his helmet so that he could spend more quality time with his partner before they head off into the sunset morphing into another two grey nomads!

And now I should move on to our biggest time of the year the ‘fire season’ and wasn’t the past season a whopper!!  Our season started around October 2006 which is unusual for us (being a vegetation brigade) and continued until our last fire in June 2007!  This is almost unheard of.  We made appearances at ## fires in total, some of which were small and others that were a day or two long.  One of the bigger fires we attended was the Clarence Fire which we had two crews at when the proverbial hit the fan on that dreadful Thursday!  I will go into more detail about the fires in another entry. 

Another big fire of the season for our brigade was the East Coast fires.  We sent two crews (the second to relieve the first) which formed part of a Southern Task Force that had been sent to provide assistance to the already exhausted and thinly stretched crews that were there.  I was part of the first crew and it was the first time I had ‘been away’ to a fire.  We were there from Tuesday 12 December to Friday 14 December before the relief crews came up to replace us.  I will also write a bit more about this fire in another entry. 

Apart from those two high profile fires we attended all parts of the state including Triabunna, Elderslie, Molesworth and Rosny.  On top of all that we also had a few smaller scale fires in our own area to attend to including 4 dumped car fires( one of which was Hodgy's), 2 fires at a local Primary School (in their playground) and a number of small vegetation fires.

As always we also competed in the Light Tanker Competition which was hosted by Rokeby Volunteer Fire Brigade.  It was a very fun day however, yet again; we didn’t bring home the trophy.

On the third of June our Group Officer, Lyndsay Suhr, organised a brilliant day for our annual Group Exercise.  All brigades gathered at Wellington Station and then headed into the bush for the day, exploring our brigades area and that of a neighbouring brigade (Collinsvale). The most taxing part of the day was trying to get the trucks in formation down the ‘Zig Zag’ track for a long distance photo.  The photo did come out well but it took a lot of effort to get about 20 trucks in the right spot!

By Kate P.

Clarence Fire

The Clarence fire was probably the first big fire of the season.  I went over in the afternoon about 2pm , when everything was well and truly underway.  People were everywhere and a million things happening at once.  The radio was going crazy with people talking on it constantly trying to get messages across.  At one point I was standing with my crew mate (Cameron S) at TAFE’s Warrane campus and everything turned orange, we were trying to put out their gardens when we drove around the other side of the building the flames that were heading for us were twice as high as the building!!  There was a fairly big patch of grass between the fence line and the building, on the other side of the fence there was scrub.  We jumped out and attempted to stop it at the fence line so that it wouldn’t get into a nearby wood pile and stack of wooden pallets that were stacked against the fence, our attempt was futile though as it just got the better of us and was way to big for our little light tanker to handle!!

After our adventure at TAFE we were taken to a property at the top of a hill on the side of the highway (no idea what it’s called!!) There were two people at home protecting the family house.  Being a hot day they were both dressed in shorts and tank tops, we advised them to put on a bit more clothing and probably to stay inside, they helped us out by showing us where water tanks were and telling us what they couldn’t live without if it burnt (what they wanted us to try very hard to protect).  Then they retreated to the less smoky indoors.  It took some time for the fire to get there and it was another eerie moment for us, sitting there with billowing smoke blocking out everything we could see then disappearing then returning again. 

All of a sudden we could hear a distant crackling and Cameron turned to me and said ‘here we go’ they were the last calm words we said for a long time! Within about 30 seconds we could see flames and another 30 seconds they were at the fence line, the smoke was so thick I lost site of the truck a number of times and become very disorientated having no idea which way was back to the truck I had to follow the hose (and as the hose is 30 metres all wound out and I was only 10 m away from the truck it was the long way back!) I finally made it and realised that the fire had jumped us and caught the shed alight, we left the old wooden shed as there was nothing we could do and moved on to the newer shed that had a very old tractor next to it.  The smoke at this point was so thick you couldn’t breathe properly and you were just praying for the moment it passed and the air cleared.  Thanks to the brilliant back up we had from Campania we saved the house… unfortunately we lost the sheds and tractor, and afterwards found out that the tractor was very old and had a lot of sentimental value to the family.   It was a day I won’t forget in a hurry.

While Cameron and I were at one end of the fire our other crew (Jason, Nathan and Peta) were at the other in our Heavy Tanker.  Now these poor buggers had a big day, they started off at about 6.00am heading off to help out at the Mt Nelson Fires (it was the second day of that fire and crews had been organised the previous night which often happens on large fires).  After spending half the day there running up and down hills and hauling meters of hoses all over the place they got re-deployed to the Eastern shore (Clarence) and were there not long after the fire began.  They then worked there till about 7.00 that night and were flat out all day.  They to were in a few hairy situations with fire surrounding them making them wonder ‘why is it we do what we do?!’ 

By Kate P.

East Coast Fire

On the 11 December 2006 chaos struck a small town called Scamander on Tasmania’s East Coast.  I can remember waking up on the 12/12 dumbfounded listening to the radio news which was telling me (and everyone else I guess!) that 14 houses had been lost in Scamander over night.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and assumed that I’d heard wrong, I’m not very bright in the mornings!  I couldn’t imagine what had happened over night for them to lose 14 houses; I didn’t even know there was a fire burning there that was fierce enough to do that.  Anyway I headed off to work and kept listening to the radio. 

About midday a call came over our pagers requesting people who could attend the Scamander fires for a few days (as it was a Tuesday it would mean a few days off work for most volunteers).  I rang our Brigade Chief and said I was available.  He told me the details and when to be at the station.  So off I set, I said good bye to people at work and went straight home to pack.  I got to the station early and sat around waiting for my crew mate (Aaron) to arrive.  When he did we organised our stuff and squeezed our two small bags into the lockers (there isn’t a lot of extra space in these vehicles) we were taking the light tanker (a Landcruiser 4 wheel drive).  Our staging area was at Bridgewater Fire Station which is not far from where we are.  Once there, like usual, we had to stand around and wait for a bit longer.  When almost all the crews had turned up we were given a quick briefing and given a Fire Service radio channel to communicate with the other vehicles whilst travelling up there.  We had a couple of pit stops to stretch our legs at St Peters Pass and Campbell Town on the way.

It was when we turned off the Midlands Highway and headed towards the East Coast that we could start to see how big our next few days were going to be.  To start with the smoke was far away but we advanced on it quiet quickly and a long long time before we actually hit the fire.  The air was still so the smoke just hung there, thick and orange.  Soon visibility was very poor and you couldn’t see very far off the sides of the road.  It seemed late by the time we got to Fingal but I don’t think it was.  We did wait there for ages while they decided where to send crews and we filled both water and fuel tanks.    Once we were told where to go we set off, stopping once on the way at the local pub to grab a hot meal which we ate on the way as we had no idea what we were going to come up against in the next few hours. 
We got off to a slow start when we found Cornwall, which is where we were deployed on the first night.  We had a look around and chatted with a couple of local brigades who had been in the thick of it the previous night.  Some of who had been fighting hard to save someone else’s house while their own was under threat in a different area.  It was decided some time in to the night that we would conduct a back burn around the town of Cornwall to burn up the hill to meet the approaching fire front.  So we set off to work and worked long and hard into the night.  It was about 4am by the time we finished and headed to St Marys Station.  We were slightly worried about where we would be sleeping as a couple of times during the night we had been asked if we’d brought sleeping bags with us (to which our answer was no! we hadn’t been told to pack any).  Thankfully we were found a hotel (a very nice hotel…. Thanks Doherty, St Helens!) And an awesome chef who came in at 4am especially to cook us some tucker. 

The next day we started again at midday and got stuck into some back breaking work in German Town.  It was a crazy day, there was media were all over the place because the Prime Minister was going to visit Scamander.  It was another long day and night before we got back to a different hotel and got to bed.  I didn’t realise what sort of day I was going to have when I woke up on the Thursday.  We headed down to the service station to get some fuel and was told that they had run out and the truck wasn’t allowed through (some roads were closed) so we had to make a 20 minute or so return trip up to St Helens to fill up. 

We were briefed at Scamander station and then were getting everything ready and waiting by our trucks waiting for instructions when suddenly it was all go.  We were in our vehicles heading to Four Mile Creek.  I was driving at this point and didn’t have time to think about what we were going to be doing or what we were heading in to.  When we got to the turn off to Four Mile Creek it got a bit scary, we wound up our windows and closed all the vents, the smoke was thicker than I have ever seen it before.  Visibility was nil, it was impossible to see the vehicle in front of you.  I could only just seem my own bull bar! (And I’m not even exaggerating!!). 

The smoke cleared slightly when we got to the township and all vehicles were stationed at various houses.  There were a lot of property owners protecting their places when we arrived and I have to say they did an awesome job.  Our first save for the day was a Ute that had pulled up; it had a good set up on the back, a tank of water and a small pump but also had a few rags and stuff sitting on the back.  A stray ember must have fallen and caught the rags alight.  Aaron was quick to spot it and got it out before any damage was done.  Our next place wasn’t so lucky, we were called to the next street along (and I’m talking not even 500m from where we were) and by the time we got to the place the house was fully engulfed, the windows were popping and flames were everywhere.  We made the call to move on and ended up at the last house in that street.  We got stuck into it as the fire approached.  Thankfully this place had a couple of water tanks we could make use of.  The smoke was chocking and blinding.  My eyes were watering and my nose was running constantly.  Aaron did a remarkable job stopping the house from catching alight from the shed that was very close to the back door and which burnt to the ground.   I was just praying that we’d make it out of there, I wasn’t so sure for awhile.  After the fire passed and things settled down again the task force gathered to be redeployed.  Aaron and I were sent off with someone to check a road that had not been protected by fire service crews.  A couple of the houses were deemed not protectable and a couple were said to be safe and protectable by the occupant.  It was our job to drive up this road and check on how they fared (or if they survived).  It was a bit daunting and I was petrified of what we’d find up there, especially when the first two houses we came across had burnt to the ground.  We were told that the occupants of both houses had been addiment that they would not leave their properties, which meant we were searching for bodies.  We feared the worst but thankfully found nothing.  This alone didn’t convince me that they were ok because with the ferocity of the fire we might not have been able to tell.  We moved on to the next place and found it intact and not damaged, it was a sight for sore eyes to see the bloke walk out of his shed and he was just as happy to see us.  I was glad when that task was done and we got back out to the main road.  Thankfully that was our last shift we still had a few more hours work ahead of us and worked long and hard into the night but we got to go home the next day.  We were replaced by Jason and Nathan who did a couple of shifts on Friday and Saturday and returned home to Hobart on Sunday.  The whole week was devastating and exhausting for not only the East Coast but everyone who helped out and assisted in some way.

By Kate P.