Major Fires 2007/08 (Bush/Scrub)

[Tyranus]

Decent fire back of Midland tafe/swanview/stratton Helitac 670/671 mobalised, Bassendean 1st, 2nd, Midland, Darlington heard so far.

Ahh I heard Darlington was turned out to something, Perth 1st was on Kings park watch on mounts bay road, pulled the scanner out, and East Swan sent 2 light tankers normal road as by that point it had been contained.

[chrissss]

The job in Kwinana is apparently behind the prison some where.

Was in Wellard near Woolcoot Rd, seen it while driving north along Fwy today around 2pm. Minutes later report came over radio advising people to prepare to leave or stay, potential for lives and property loss , road blocks by WAPOL.

Seemed under control then (due to lack of visible flames) and confirmed over radio about half an hour later that fire was contained, could'nt have been too big as there was no Air Support when i drove past, although wind was pretty gusty down there.

EDIT : Was more likely 2.30ish when i drove past

the original call came through to us to back up Kwinana south at 1230

we truned out all our vehicles,i was drivin LT2

when we arrived it was on both sides of woolcoot road,i was listening to the original call when they said 1st alarm,said they'd have it contained within 5-10 minutes but then it got into a very heavy fuel and it was gone

cockburn cfm and serpy cheif were on scene before the crap hit the fan so they were very quick to also mobilise all baldivis vehicles,jandakot south coogee and all oakfords.rocky cheif was also there.

was a very well run incident and we had the head and flank fires contained within the first 15 minutes and were basially into mop up after that.

everyone did a good job.

[JG-103]

i was in lt 1, managed to prevent a shed from going up, was full of paints and all sorts of flamables (and the shed was wide open), along with acyetalene gas cylinders outside, Then became the sector scribe, thus why everyone got fed for a change

The helitacs were awesome to watch, dropping extremely close and accuratley near powerlines

on our sector:

Mandogalup LT 1, LT2 3.4, 7.2
Kwinana South LT 1 and 4.4
Baldivis LT2 and 9.2
South Coogee 2.4
Kwinana Pump and LT
Oakford 3.4 ?- cant remember

[dreynolds]

SOunds like you lot have had the raw end of the deal recently... Im with kalamunda BFB and weve only had one call out in the past 2 weeks and that was only assisting DEC

[Enviro]

Kalamunda has had its busy times while we have been quiet down on the coast. Wish this little p*?*k that is lighting up in Kwinana would get caught or just die in a corner as he/she is starting to get closer to my house now.

Stay safe all

[TheBushFirefighter]

Kalamunda has had its busy times while we have been quiet down on the coast. Wish this little p*?*k that is lighting up in Kwinana would get caught or just die in a corner as he/she is starting to get closer to my house now.

Stay safe all

Yes KVBFS has had very busy season's previously and I like how its quiet this year for us, it makes a real difference, but the young bucks in our brigade don't see it.
My only wish is the the powers that be in FESA, stop trying to protect thier jobs by only prodominantly having FR&S personnel at Bush fires, cos FR&S are no good at combatting a bush fire...........The problem is that a bush fire moves and isn't in a square box, so structure fire fighting doesn't apply.........enough said

[dreynolds]

Kalamunda has had its busy times while we have been quiet down on the coast. Wish this little p*?*k that is lighting up in Kwinana would get caught or just die in a corner as he/she is starting to get closer to my house now.

Stay safe all

Yes KVBFS has had very busy season's previously and I like how its quiet this year for us, it makes a real difference, but the young bucks in our brigade don't see it.
My only wish is the the powers that be in FESA, stop trying to protect thier jobs by only prodominantly having FR&S personnel at Bush fires, cos FR&S are no good at combatting a bush fire...........The problem is that a bush fire moves and isn't in a square box, so structure fire fighting doesn't apply.........enough said

well you seem to know best ...but even you must admit its been a rather quiet few weeks... just after christmas it was busy but now its reasonably quiet.

[KAB]

In my district it has been very quietwe have had two fires to go to all season but clackline had 5 or 6 in one week damb arsonists!

[Tyranus]

FR&S

lets think about this one...Fire Rescue and Service...if you're going to put an & in there it should be F&RS Fire and Rescue Service, however even then you're more likely to confuse people as they're simply known as FRS, just like we're BFS.
Areas have their busy seasons and their quiet seasons, enjoy it while it's quiet, next year you may not have a chance to rest. As was my realisation last year with the Storms and SES, previously I was annoyed while it was quiet but then Stirling got hit, and we were out quite regularly and eventually you get tired of it, and want a rest.

[Fastlane]

Yes KVBFS has had very busy season's previously and I like how its quiet this year for us, it makes a real difference, but the young bucks in our brigade don't see it.
My only wish is the the powers that be in FESA, stop trying to protect thier jobs by only prodominantly having FR&S personnel at Bush fires, cos FR&S are no good at combatting a bush fire...........The problem is that a bush fire moves and isn't in a square box, so structure fire fighting doesn't apply.........enough said

Easy solution here - work with them, not against them. We have no such problems up this way. We regularly get called to jobs WELL inside the gazetted fire district to assist and vice-versa. Same with DEC.

Sure the older people don't like change, but that is how it is these days. Long gone are the days of driving out to a fire in an old overweight vehicle, putting it out and then sitting on the side of the road finishing off a few beers.

You can't hold onto past incidents and base the future on those or hold a grudge or chip on your shoulder (and yes this goes for both sides). BTW, there is a thread here somewhere for FESA politics..

[WPXZBP]

...My only wish is the the powers that be in FESA, stop trying to protect thier jobs by only prodominantly having FR&S personnel at Bush fires, cos FR&S are no good at combatting a bush fire...........The problem is that a bush fire moves and isn't in a square box, so structure fire fighting doesn't apply.........enough said

Frankly that's a load of carp. Not all FRS Brigades are "fixed to the ground". In my FRS Brigade we have a 2.4 Urban Tanker (which, surprisingly enough, CAN pump and roll) and a Light Tanker, which is also quite mobile. I know of quite a few FRS Brigades (such as Joondalup, Canning Vale and Roleystone) which also have the same capability. It's not good to tar a whole service with the same brush.

You can't hold onto past incidents and base the future on those or hold a grudge or chip on your shoulder (and yes this goes for both sides). BTW, there is a thread here somewhere for FESA politics..

Hear hear!

One can have a whinge at FESA's politics here. In there you will see reasons as to why FESA allocate career firefighters to all metro fires first, where possible, then allocate volunteers (FRS AND BFS) afterwards.

[Helitak_670]

I agree with needing rolling vehicles. A stand alone pump on the back capable to producing up to 20bar (2000kpa) is needed like NSW, VIC and QLD, SA.

[kylep]

Cat1s in NSW do not produce 20bar unless you wring their necks, not even sure if you get it then. You might get it running only 1 line, but anyway... I think the newer 3.4s in WA are as good or better than the Cat1s. Also, wouldn't mind a monitor, as most WA tankers have as standard I think.

My only wish is the the powers that be in FESA, stop trying to protect thier jobs by only prodominantly having FR&S personnel at Bush fires, cos FR&S are no good at combatting a bush fire...........The problem is that a bush fire moves and isn't in a square box, so structure fire fighting doesn't apply.........enough said

I'm not even going to get into this, other than to say 'pull your head in'. You should know from your experience that BFS and FRS can work well together, and a good relationship is key, which is what has improved in your area. This kind of attitude is what leads to a crap relationship, and all sorts of stupid behaviours occurring.

[TheBushFirefighter]

Thank you to all who have passed comment, at least the comments and debate has raised many good points compared to the some of dribble, of previous weeks.

Thanks for pointing out the other forum thread to me WPXZBP, I will be posting shortly on the FESA Minority and the squeeky wheel, so please all come over and have a look at that one.

I agree whole heartedly that we as 3- 4 seperated Fire Agencies need to work together cohesively and on the coal face we generally do, but I have been a few State Committees over the years and the fire front is different to the Management.

I hope a pray for all agencies to have a quiet season with no deaths or injuries occurring, the bush in most cases needs to be rejuvinated anyway so have a quiet season kind regards BF Fighter

[bomber]

Grass fire going in Rockingham, Cnr of Dixon rd and Old Mandurah rd.

Appliances in attendance so far:

Rocky 1st and 2nd, Hope Valley and Canningvale 2.4. Think the helitacs may also be there.