SA Firefighter

If their is any doubt, just ask the person what they are competent in...

Exactly.
And although it is only a small thing, simply going up to someone unknown to you and asking them what qualifications they have, rather than looking at their helmet promotes inter-brigade/group communication and interaction. This leads to better inter-group relationships etc.

I was wondering if anybody could tell me what the external lighting is like on the new 34's.  Judging from the pictures I have seen, there doesn't seem to be a great deal.

We just cut them out of the volunteer stickers

Yeah, if you can manage to still get your hands on some!

Yeah, one of the guys was going to contact region today and find out what is taking so long.

...that is pretty poor at any rate.

Well, one of our sets got damaged - one of the brace stitchings came a drift on a pair of pants - and it took about 5 weeks to get repaired and returned back to our station, however we did receive a relacement set whilst this was happening, thankfully!

Burnside tried it with the important Training type of markings, ie. highest level of training so you had a 1, 2 or 3, RCR, BA or HZ (obviously if you have hazmat you already have BA) and first aid green square.... the official respose by CFS HQ. "We don't need to look like boy scouts, take them off!" Ok, so they worked well, looked good, easy to use and was officially granted by the ROPO a while before hand but yeah.... CFS Opinion was straight to the point!

When did this trial take place and for how long? Have you removed these markings as yet?
I ask because in relatively recent (don't know exactly how recent, going on memory) photos I have noticed them.

Having worn my PBI recently to two house fires, overall, I am very impressed with the gear from an operational point of view.  It feels very protective, and has some very nice little features that excel it past the nomex gear: The padded knees for one are great when you are kneeling down for extended periods on an external strucural defence - especially when you are carrying around extra weight.  The large "collar" (I can't remember if it has a proper name) really gives good protection, especially if you don't have a flash-hood.  Lastly, it was good to be able to leave my pants on and hose them down afterwards and not get even slightly wet on the inside.  Cleaned up very well, especially since it got reasonably dirty during overhaul.

All in all, great gear!
However, there are still some issues by the sound of things regarding the extent of its usage. In my group, it is for STRUCTURAL fire-fighting use only.

Our brigade members have two helmets, ie. structural if they are BA/HAZ/RCR. Personally, I wear my structure helmet everywhere, except on striketeams.
Most of our members also wear their structure helmet to most incidents, providing they have one.

Does this fact that Mount Barker having 2 pumpers in two years time mean that the rumour of an MFS station (retained) being established in Mount Barker is nothing more than fiction?

Personally, I would like to see the CFS and SES join to form one service.  I feel that in the long run this would solve the many number of problems now being faced in  smaller rural regions where the existence of the two services in one town is becoming harder and harder to support, especially those maintaining a volunteer SAAS also.
Initially, you might loose a few members who don't like the concept, but you will find that those people there for the right reasons will continue on.  It would almost certainly nulify any CFS, SES competition between services and unite the common goals of both and multiply there effect significantly, thus providing an even better service for the community.
I even have a name, what about the "Country Fire and Rescue Service".

I know that this concept would not be applicable for all situations, but definately for the more rural regions and those having trouble supporting two services.

...I think the Incident Operations section serves the purpose and I'm personally only interested in hearing about specific jobs, not in July 2005 ABC Brigade did 10 fixed alarms, 8 wheelie bin fires, 7 stop calls and 2 MVA's This may interest other list members though, so let us know what you think!

Quite right! I would like to hear about the more interesting call-outs, rather than know about the 20 fixed alarms your brigade attended in one month.  I also feel it puts too much emphasis on call quantities rather than call qualities.

Up until a couple of years ago (3 or 4), we were a joint CFS/SES "unit" in which the majority of people were CFS and SES members.  We would jointly crew rescue apliances as necessary for MVA's.
However a split occured and this caused a bit of trouble between the two services, in terms of people being able to commit themselves between the two. Fortunately, CFS retained most memebrs, but SES lost quite a few, consequently the reason why we have so many CFS RCR trained crew. However, today we still have several joint members and this does not present many, if any problems for the crew.

Our situation today, with SES as descrbied by Mike is similar to that of 'mengcfs'.  SES are the primary rescue tender for our area, however being that our CFS has a number of trained and experienced CFS RCR members (about 7 or 8 I think), we carry a set of RCR gear on our 24P.  It is very old and very heavy, second hand gear, but there have been a couple of times when we have come very close to using it.  Hopefully, we are getting another second hand set of gear very soon.  I have heard it is much newer than the antiques we have, and most importantly much lighter.  However, I would like our brigade to eventually get a Holmatro Rapid Intervention set - one day anyway.

Our aim - which has been put in place and is nearly complete - is to get our CFS brigade in the "official" position of secondary rescue response, in which if SES have trouble providing a full crew, which sometimes happens, especially during the day time, then a CFS RCR member(s) will make up the rescue team.  Also, if CFS arrive on scence before SES and their ETA is greater than 5 minutes, then we (CFS) will begin the rescue and SES on arrival will work in with their RCR crew and 'very nice' equipment to make sure that the rescue continues to run smoothly and efficiently.

Quite recently, we have had a couple of rescues where both our services have done exactly this - worked togther smoothly and efficiently.  Also, we have done some joint RCR training and definitely look to do much more of it in the very near future.

At the end of the day, we both share a common goal of providing the best service we can to the community and if this means we both share the rcr role to a certain degree, be it that SES are still the primary tender, then I don't think there is anybody who will disagree, especially myself.

In todays world, when the people willing to become RCR trained crew are getting harder and harder to find -like most thiings- it is impecable that services put their past and differences behind them and work together as a team, no matter what colour overalls they are wearing.

Regarding the use of falshhoods;

I was at my group training meeting last night and was told by the deputy GO that flashoods can now be used by CFS personell for structural fire fighting use. 

However, I don't beleive there is a CFS standard flashhood yet as he said the CFS couldn't decide whether to adopt the American or British standard.  This is due to the fact that they both use different types and there are a lot of different brands. 

Unfortunately though, the CFS has said that they will be at a groups expense.  So those groups with a lot of money to spare will probably buy them for all there CABA operatrs and those without enough money to spare will probably have to go without for the time being.

This is just what I was told, but don't take it for granted.

On another note, I thought that flashhoods might have been incorporated into the pbi "structural fire-fighting suits", but obviously not.