Hills Fires 10/01/07

[Alan (Big Al)]

Well the hills have sparked up again with fires at Mt Bold and Meadows this evening, most of the state is heading to the fires, from as far away as Stirling North!! Good luck to the firies who are out there....

On a side note out of all of R1 Mundoo group was the only one left untouched for the Mount Bold fire, then at 1930 another fire started at meadows which borders our group, and strike teams were called in from as far away as Gawler for this fire yet our group still sits here? Can someone explain how this all works to me, it's just confusing sitting on my hands with a going fire a half hour away  and we still sit here i just don't get it???

[Pipster]

MundCFS, it's got me stuffed!!!

It may well have something to do with individual Groups - and whether or not the Group Officer lets brigades go or not.....

Watching all the pager messages come through,I was thinking what was the point of sending crews from as far away as Stirling North, Carrieton, Wilmington - if things were that desperate to call crews from 5 hours away, why didn't they do more of a "change of quarters" - take most of the resources from a group, and replace them with the next door group & so on.......?

I heard a few unhappy Strike Team Leaders, who were obviously sitting around for long periods of time, ( two hours) just waiting to be given something to do - while more strike teams were still being called from from further flung areas....     

The info given to at least one of those strike teams was that they were sitting at a given location for "asset protection"   From their complaints, I don't think they could see or smell the fire, and weren't very happy!!!

Pip

[Alan (Big Al)]

Understandable and our GO's wouldn't say no to a strike team from our group!!! Who knows we are used to being overlooked though, we'll probably get the call for mop up night shift tonight!!!

[probie_boy]

I was one of the first attending at mt bold last night. My strike team (lofty - lofty car 1, ironbank 34, bradbury 24, mylor 24, upper sturt 24 & stirling tanker) was responded at 1845 for active standby at bradbury. When i pulled into the carpark at my station I could see the huge plumes of smoke across the valleys and my first thought was "i think we'll be goin straight there". I was right. When we got there the first 1 or 2 hours was the most intense thing i've ever done. There were 2 crew on my truck who compared the intensity and urgency as being on par, if not greater than mt osmond. We drove past at least 3 burning sheds, including a huge hayshed full of bales. Im unsure if there was any livestock losses.

If theres one thing I learnt from this fire is that every brigade should have a floating pump. Here at upper sturt we have recently bought a floating pump for our 24 and it saved a house from burning down. We simply threw it into the swimming pool at the back of this house. It was brilliant. We were also able to fill upper sturt 24, bradbury 24 and littlehampton 24 with it. That is another great factor of it: it can fill a 24 in about 3 mins. If you can, I suggest everyone buy one.

But a huge fire, Easily the biggest fire of the summer. I am glad that it lit up late yesterday rather than late tuesday, because it was nightmare enough last night. God knows what would of happened if we'd had it all day.

[Darius]

it was lofty car 2 (to be pedantic!), now with melted plastic bits.  Was certainly pretty full on along Boot Hill Rd at the start!!

[Scania_1]

Better to leap frog some groups and leave them full of resources in case something else happens. Makes sense to bring in appliances/crews from further away.

[CFS_Firey]

Better to leap frog some groups and leave them full of resources in case something else happens. Makes sense to bring in appliances/crews from further away.

Except that when something else did happen, (Meadows), they were still left untouched, which kind of defeats the purpose...

[Scania_1]

Yes but wasnt Meadows just a small fire?? At least Mundoo was available should something bigger had happened. Would have looked pretty silly if there was another big fire and no appliances for miles around.

[probie_boy]

it was lofty car 2 (to be pedantic!), now with melted plastic bits.  Was certainly pretty full on along Boot Hill Rd at the start!!

sorry. thanks for picking up my capt from his trek for a water point too! Yes boot hill rd was damn intense.

[medevac]

I was one of the first attending at mt bold last night.

i fail to see how this is possible? as there were heaps of appliances on scene  before lofty group were even responded.... 

`

[SA Firey]

All strike teams make sure you take your ration packs as deployment is normally a 12 hour stint so no good whinging after 6 hours for food

I was surprised you guys from Mundoo were'nt there as well

[Mike]

The Prospect Hill (Meadows) fire was small. A strike team did attend, but it was from the local group. Hadn't got passed the area yet, so they were diverted. When it was all over bar the shouting, the strike team continued on their way to Mt Bold....

[fire03rescue]

Saw some great work from lots of brigades to save houses under some very hard conditions,the only problem was a few appliance's driving on the road in thick smoke and not having a siren on to warn other firefighters working on the road.

[mengcfs]

Are the Mt Burr fire kings at Mt Bold? Saw three drive thru town with support tankers

[Robert-Robert34]

Yes mengcfs 3 Forestry SA fire kings from Mount Burr along with a couple of tankers are heading to Mount Bold to relieve their Mount Lofty colleagues from fire fighting duties 

I've been listening to Forestry SA TG 165 on my trunk tracker for the last few days even though were to far away from that area im getting traffic anyway   

[SA Firey]

Are the Mt Burr fire kings at Mt Bold? Saw three drive thru town with support tankers

Yes there are three Fire Kings on scene and were in Pocock Sector

[Pipster]

There were 5 Fire Kings all together I think..along with 2 Forestry Tankers, a trailer pump & a small dozer, all from Forestry.

Numerous DEH  14 appliances were on scene last night.

There were 7 strike teams lined up for dayshift this morning...including crews from Region 6, Region 5, Region 2, and possibly Region 3 (at 0730 this morning, we were still trying to confirm it.....   

Looks like they might have had a bit of fun on dayshift with some back burning / burning out unburnt islands.....

Pip

[bajdas]

On the 11th January, 31 SES personnel assisted SAPOL in surveying & searching properties within the Mt Bold Fire Ground area. Six vehicles were deployed & forms completed. The vehicles were controlled from Kangarilla Oval staging area.

If they came across active fire, this was reported to CFS & the crew   left the area.

Other crew assisted CFS Staging, CFS Region 1 Ops, provided transport, delivered meals (controlled from CFS Mawson Region base at Morphett Vale) and CFS Hotline operators. People also operated as liason at CFS SCC, SEC, CFS Mawson & Kangarilla.

Was interesting to be operate GRN radio comms from a table in the back room of the Kangarilla footy club, while the public meeting was held in the main room. Had tables of STAR squad on one side & SAPOL uniform on the other side.

I understand lighting & chainsaw crews were deployed later.

[Alan J]

I was one of the first attending at mt bold last night.

i fail to see how this is possible? as there were heaps of appliances on scene  before lofty group were even responded.... 

Heard Mt.Lofty S/T being responded to Bradbury as our second appliance was getting away from  the station.  So they were responded only 10 mins or so after the initial smoke sighting message.  Beaten there by most of Mawson, Sturt & Heysen Groups, but well ahead of Murraylands, Gawler, & beyond...
So I guess that makes them one of the first on scene.   

We got to Cut Hill Rd just in time for the westerly wind-change.  Hairy.  Took about 30 seconds to cover 100M to the house we were looking after. And a further 30 secs to fully involve a saw-mill shed & stacks & stacks of wood & rubbish along the fence line.  A few minutes later when we thought we were ok to move on, a machinery & fuel shed round the other side of the house went up. As it was right next to the bloke's business shed, we couldn't very well leave it.  So that was our next 45mins or so.

By the time that was sorted, everyone else was away & gone on property defence down Dashwood Gully or Razorback.  So we were sent around to the west side up Tester Rd to check after a few places along there. & maybe knock down some of the km or so to the next nearest appliance on Saddlebags Rd.

A productive night.  Completely different story to the waste of time & effort of the Thursday night revisit.  Consider this to be a dummy-spit about resource management.  First 12 or so hours is reasonable to be chaotic.  24-36hrs in & *after* declared contained, it is no longer reasonable.  Failure to task crews on-scene to the enormous amounts of work available is incompetence.  Failure to release or stop-call unused/not required crews is downright rude.  Or worse.

Not happy.
 

[probie_boy]

I was one of the first attending at mt bold last night.

i fail to see how this is possible? as there were heaps of appliances on scene  before lofty group were even responded.... 

Heard Mt.Lofty S/T being responded to Bradbury as our second appliance was getting away from  the station.  So they were responded only 10 mins or so after the initial smoke sighting message.  Beaten there by most of Mawson, Sturt & Heysen Groups, but well ahead of Murraylands, Gawler, & beyond...
So I guess that makes them one of the first on scene.   

thank you stopcallking!

yeah we were only dispatched at 1845. I was actually at a mates house at glenalta having a BBQ when i heard all the sirens for sturt group going off. I was laughing thinking "wonder where they're going?" low and behold, 10 mins later my pager goes off.

[JC]

I heard about mt bold on the abc news at 1900, by 2030 region 4 had rung our duty phone to see if anyone might be able to go. For them to be asking guys 600kms away if there avalible for a taskforce 2.5hrs after the fire had started makes me think that the first 10-20 appliances on scene would have had some serious firefighting and asset protection to do. from all reports you guys did a filtered fantastic job. Top stuff.

[JC]

p.s. im up at roxby, thats how far away they wanted to get people from.

[Pipster]

They were also calling people from Pt Lincoln, as well as the Riverland & the Lower South East......

Not sure why...?   

[medevac]

I was one of the first attending at mt bold last night.

i fail to see how this is possible? as there were heaps of appliances on scene  before lofty group were even responded.... 

Heard Mt.Lofty S/T being responded to Bradbury as our second appliance was getting away from  the station.  So they were responded only 10 mins or so after the initial smoke sighting message.  Beaten there by most of Mawson, Sturt & Heysen Groups, but well ahead of Murraylands, Gawler, & beyond...
So I guess that makes them one of the first on scene.   

thank you stopcallking!

yeah we were only dispatched at 1845. I was actually at a mates house at glenalta having a BBQ when i heard all the sirens for sturt group going off. I was laughing thinking "wonder where they're going?" low and behold, 10 mins later my pager goes off.

i dont really give a toss. just saying "i was one of the first attending" implies to me that you were on one of the first 2 or 3 trucks, when there must have been at least 15trucks there already... not too worry though.

i didnt go anyway so who am i too know what happened at all?

[medevac]

found this photo whic hwas a result of mt bold 

this was caused by one of those canvas type seat covers