Bridgetown Fire - Discussion

[Nick]

Some of the facts are incorrect. The IC (Local) was based at Maranup rd then moved to the Greenbushes firestation. The fire became a DEC fire Friday afternoon and the IC (and IMT) was based in Kirup. There were several Operations officers and their assistants based at the show grounds during the following days. They had regular teleconferences with the IMT (He may have been on one at the time hence moved to his car to get away from the noise). I hope this helps clear things up.

[dlcat1]

Thanks Nick,

I knew it was at Maranup on Thursday PM and got moved but I didnt realise it got moved so many times.

Saw on one website or another today that the Ferndale fire had 6 ignition points found so far. Heard a farmer shooting stock on Monday and I just wish the clown/s who light fires realised the consequences.

[Kingy]

I just found this thread, it was a bit of a surprise that my website and story was the first post.

I have had to change a few things in the report as I have found out more information after the fire. I agree that it is only one persons view(mine), and I am open to other interpretations of what happened.

As a lot of you know, the first day of a major fire is usually quite chaotic, the second day has some degree of control, and from the third day on, it is usually well organised.


It was good to make a difference that day, I busted my nuts at the Dwellingup fire a few years ago, and the next day, the wind just blew that fire straight over our hard won firebreak. This time, the line we drew in the sand at midnight, and that we spent the next 12 hours holding, was the final perimeter of the fire.

As i have stated on my site, I am privileged to be in charge of this crew.



Kingy

[Kingy]

A couple of things that I found out after the event:

-The local IC team on Friday were mostly local farmers and volunteers, when the fire blew over the control lines and was heading towards their own properties, they "unvolunteered"(as we all would), and headed home to save their own families and property. That was one of the reasons why there was confusion at the showgrounds that evening.

-We did not know that the fire had been handed to DEC, hence why we were surprised to find a strange sector commander in the middle of the night claiming authority, and the other sector commander was actually a division commander.

-I was on the Busselton Chiefs T-card, and he beat me to the battleboard, taking me off the fireground list before I got there.


It was also the first big fire that I had been in as part of the management team, rather than just fireman/crew leader/Captain like all the previous ones. Also, I wrote up the report on my website on the Saturday while suffering chronic sleep deprivation, so there were a few mistakes in there as well.

I took some video as well, but I need to beep out some of the language before I upload it to youtube


Kingy

[wasaint]

Hey Kingy i would not worry about deleting the beep and i would suggest you maybe get a nother free webpage and load it upto that as well.
Also in an incident like that there are going to be times of missunderstanding and after all we are all human and are entiteled to make some mistakes
Dont be too hard on your self, best thing is to take in everything you have witnesed and seen and use it to your adavantage next time.
Remeber you were there and thats what counts =D>

[treeny]

Hey kingy, i dont think you should beep anything out, it gives people and idea of wot volunteers go thru and the stress.

[dlcat1]

Hey kingy, i dont think you should beep anything out, it gives people and idea of wot volunteers go thru and the stress.

Agreed. If you are worried put a warning at the beginning. People can then choose to turn the sound down.

I remember seeing a training video on the St Peters (Sydney) Gasworks fire and that was all uncut news footage. Very colourful but we all knew what it meant.