DEC fires discussion

[rich]

thats ok gohie,wow cant believe they were still there ,new they would have wanted to stay a long time after sending us home almost as we got there, if they had kept us all there i recon it would have been all mopped up & fully blacked out & safe by 8am.Was actually expecting them to go and light more up once we left ,DEC are a danger to us vollies out there they almost wiped us out with their loader pushing a tree into our LT while we were reeling in the hose reel.
And no problem us in east gidge are always willing to help out our neighbours as we hope you will help us if we ever need it.

[newbie]

east gidge LT 1 was also there and 2 Lts from east swan.the fire would have been totally blacked out by 8am if DEC didn't want to utalise us all we got stood down after only 2 tanks of water ,oviously dec wanted more pay to stay there longer

DEC crews go back to normal pay after 8am, they would have sent the volunteers home for the simple reason that most volunteers need to work their normal job to feed their family and would assume you would appriciate it.
The DEC crews would have been paid the same regardless and everyone of them would have probably prefered not to be mopping up but it is their job.
I would have though you would prefer to be sent home so you could go to work or bed, rather than mop up a DEC fire that DEC crews are responsible for.

[Gohie]

Sorry to offend newbie - not the intention. We all do the same thing, and yes, needed to get home to get to work. Realise it is on DEC land and they were doing their job - appreciate it as we live close to the incident. Just an observation and thinking aloud. Thanks

[rich]

yeah i do understand that but if they used all of us vollies then it would have been all done and dusted by 8am with no need for them to be there till 12.And if they were doing their job then they werent doing a good job taking 5 hrs to mop it up when it would have only taken about 1 more hr with us vollies there as we were putting water on the fire unlike they were just driving around it.

[meg]

rich - DEC often take quite a different approach to fire fighting to FESA. It could be that they felt the conditions were reasonable to let it burn out for a bit thus lessening the fire risk for the rest of summer.

Either way, I respect that they send vollies home when they can. I know I certainly appreciate being able to get to work on time, or go home again when a fire is able to be dealt with by the professionals.

[treeny]

i think that we volunteers should all be happy if we are stood down. it means we can get home and sleep or get to work.

[newbie]

Gohie - No offence taken, my message might have come across a little rough but it wasn't intended to... that’s the problem with the net, it lacks all of the human expressions and tones so things can sometimes come out a little different.

rich - They would have sent you home to be nice, if you really wanted to stay then you should have just asked and they would have probably be happy to have you around to help.

The big difference with the different agencies is mop up. Standard mop up for FRS, BFB and DEC is 20m in on the ground and 100m in for the high stuff with a mineral earth brake (can be increased if the fire weather is worse). DEC are religious about mop up, the burnt edge has to be against the mineral earth brake, you will probably find that they would have been waiting for the wet edge to dry out so they could burn it out to the constructed brake, we all hear about DEC "lighting up again" but there is a very important reason to it, an unburnt edge against a burnt edge spells trouble for several days.

If a DEC officer declares a fire safe and then it escapes a few days later, well... big trouble and if they make a habit of it then they get demoted.

The other difference is DEC's style of fire fighting to conserve water, (try fighting a fire when the nearest water point is a 1-2 hour turn around) they do sometimes wait for smaller sticks etc to burn out rather than put water on it, sometimes leaving something to smoulder for 30 minutes not only conserve water but also means its dealt with for good and also does save time.

They would have stayed to mid afternoon because we all know things pop up when the heat of the day starts to kick in and with a hot and windy next few days they would have increased the mop up standard. You'll probably find they'll have a few HD's their tomorrow to check on it.

Again hopefully this doesn't come out a little rough, its not intended to.
It is actually a good thing to talk about, I've been a vollie and also worked for DEC and the only issues that happen are from a miss understanding on how the difference agencies work on the ground.

[treeny]

It is actually a good thing to talk about, I've been a vollie and also worked for DEC and the only issues that happen are from a miss understanding on how the difference agencies work on the ground.

If you want to talk about it more may i suggest it gets moved out of the incident thread and into the discussion thread.

no offence intended

[meg]

If you want to talk about it more may i suggest it gets moved out of the incident thread and into the discussion thread.

A good suggestion from treeny and so it is done

[newbie]

It's a good idea, If anyone has any questions about DEC then put them forward and we'll see if we can get some answers.

[dlcat1]

How many preformed/rosterd IMTs do they have, what are their colours and where are they?

I think Red is Blackwood and Blue? is Wellington?

Also do the IMT rosters have enough people for two or three shifts (i.e. do they rotate three shifts on red or does someone else have to take over)?

[newbie]

How many preformed/rosterd IMTs do they have, what are their colours and where are they?

I think Red is Blackwood and Blue? is Wellington?

Also do the IMT rosters have enough people for two or three shifts (i.e. do they rotate three shifts on red or does someone else have to take over)?

Sorry for the late reply, I've been a little busy so haven't been on.
There are 4 teams gold,black,green,red. Each team takes turn on roster and isn't associated to any district and should have enough people to run constantly but sometimes they do bring in other teams, they can run on their own though and for how ever long is needed.