SA Firefighter

Might be worth speaking with region again Matt then forwarding that info on again? Theres plenty of brigades with BOMS response data that get to go play with themselves [so to speak].

Thanks mate, there is about to be some significant changes to our response data in BOMS so I will use that as an opportunity to investigate it.

A car fire is a two appliance responce, this changed a few years ago because of a couple of cars that were on LPG that went bang.

Can you find an SOP to verify that, according to the 2008 CFS COSO's and SOP's it is a single appliance response unless the first appliance is not carrying B.A.

MFS have a different policy.

Nice work by the cameraman to get as close to the fire as possible once it exploded.

No fire service standing by, an interesting move.

You would laugh, but It could probably just as easily happen here.

Rumour ?....Fact ?....Fiction ?....Fishin ?

Nothing new about MFS putting a rescue pump at Seaford, it has been on the cards for at least the last year or so - even though it only became 'official' a couple of months ago. The new rescue boundaries will be interesting, might fill a few gaps out to the east where there is a bit of hole in coverage at the moment.

We stopped in at the station yesterday on the way back from a job, looks good. I would say 4 to 6 weeks an it will be occupied.

Our station was empty for 2 hours, with 1 truck at a COQ and the other at a house fire........I asked for a COQ and got knocked back

We were covering your area, as well as Christies MFS for a fair whack of the night. Your station is not regarded as a 'strategic station' so you wont generally have a COQ there, the Group policy is that two neighbouring brigades must both be empty, then Morphett Vale will get a COQ from somewhere.

As for responding as an EMA brigade into MFS areas, the MOU between CFS and MFS says we need a 'B.A. qualified crew' some people take this to be 2 x operators, some say 4. The Mawson Group has told MFS (via the chain of command) that until we can train sufficient members in B.A. we will only guarantee a minimum of 2 B.A. operators.

As it stands at the moment if we don't get at least 2 B.A. crew for any type of incident in MFS area (rural fires included) we contact Adelaide Fire and let them decide if we go or not.

The new manual also says no mixing of PPE, i.e. PBI pants and Nomex jackets.

Given that the Region One Commander was in charge of the uniform committee it could be something that he pushes a bit.

I also heard of this. A certain paid CFS staff member telling the CFS crews at 20 to only wear PBI if its an alarm/structure call..

Interesting, the new uniform manual says you can pretty much wear PBI to everything except rural jobs, it also says the OIC can use his discretion as to what PPE is worn.

I guess the other concept would be to put a rosenbauer NH30 onto the back of a 34p to see how that going with 4 in 4 out...

James, my brigade would be happy to take something like that. A 34P with at least a 750GPM PTO pump would be ok for us, then we still have a second 4wd for rural stuff and an appliance that can actually have a reasonable crack at boosting should we need it.

I'm not sure if there is some physical limitation or just that no one has pushed it but a few of those trucks around the bigger towns and EMA brigades would be great. That is the urban interface vehicle that has long been talked about.

Here is the Coronial report from this fire

http://www.magistratescourt.tas.gov.au/decisions/coronial_findings/m/myer_fire_-_2009_tas_cd_239

To say the Tassie Fire Service coppped a bollocking about this job would be an understatement. The Coroner ripped into them big time for turning off the sprinklers early into the job, not following established SOP's and not having suitable pre-plans for high risk premises .

The short of it is that the Station Officer was worried about the potential of electrocution from the water from the sprinklers and the electrical hazard, but then removed all fire fighters from the area anyway and ceased any fire-fighting operations, it wasn't until the fire was beyond the size of the sprinkler system that they turned them back on - by then she was well on the way to becoming a carpark. It seems that there were a number of fundamental mistakes made on the day, with SOP's not being followed and an S.O. that was out of his depth (as we probably all would be at the 'big one')

It is interesting to see how the coroner looked at this job and how the incompetence of certain individuals was publically highlighted. Certainly a career limiting report for some you would think.

It is worth having a look at this, especially if you ever expect to have anything to do with sprinklers, boosters or any type of high rise fire. It makes you wonder how differently things would be done here.

Well hopefully our truck is only away for a couple of weeks, the 34 is actually a bit nicer to drive than our 24P. I feel sorry for McLaren Flat who had their truck taken away, then given a spare which was also taken away for another spare. Nothing like the joy of changing over every piece of gear on a truck a couple of times.

MFS: *CFSRES INC053 06/09/09 19:24,RESPOND To,HONEYPOT RD,HACKHAM WEST MAP 186 E 14 TG182,PERSONS STUCK IN DRAIN NEAR SHOPS PERSON, WAITING AT ROUNDABOUT,CDN431

Interesting that a rescue truck wasn't responded to this job, 439 was in station but wasn't sent. In the end two people were rescued from a drain by crews in B.A. so no big deal, but I would have thought there might have been a better incident type to pick to generate the appropriate response for this type of job.

Well it's now nearly 3 years since we have been able to get someone on a B.A. course so no need to worry about people doing re-freshers. We were able to increase our maximum numbers on our SFEC for B.A. but that doesn't help us at all when the service only trains to the minimum, and unfortunately the minimum is not enough for our brigade.

Yes we have discussed this  with the Regional Commander and promises have been made but at this stage we still do not have any one on a B.A. course. When you are doing over 400 calls a year with many of them requiring B.A. it is certainly having an affect on our response capabilities.

We have offered to run our own courses (we have nearly enough B.A. instructors and course assistants within the Group) and even pay for the use of the STC, but that has so far been denied. So we are now looking at using external training providers and paying them.

I think the bottom line is that we need to run more courses.

Looks like another article in Saturday's Advertiser http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25661902-5006301,00.html

think of it this way you are out shopping at a movie or any where really you leave your GPS unit in your car, your car gets done over they take your GPS, they know where you live, they know your not home cos your out, and go Break into your house too. and you do not  even know till you get home and your home is empty

Unless more than one person lives in the house and someone else is home whilst you are out shopping.

Still good advice not to leave them visible in the car, even the windscreen mount or the mark it leaves on the windscreen is enough to tip them off that you have one in the car.