SA Firefighter

Way too quick for both appliances- I'm sure you can hear the tyres howling!
Pair of drivers need a kick in the donkey for plain stupidity

Man....There has been some activity here since I was last on!!!

I will clear one thing up though!

I passed the "beep test" first time running 9.7 before they stopped me and I am still working on a higher mark.(highest I made it was 10.3 in training)

This subject is a sensitive one among the crew, as many unfortunately didn't "make the cut"

You also re-run the test in the drill squad around 3 more times of which we have done it again once and I passed again.

If you didn't pass it again, you would have a chance to achieve it again, otherwise your out of the squad.(that's what we were told anyway)

Anyhow, we have just finished week 5, so we have 9 weeks to go!

Have been doing BA rotation for the last 2 weeks with the new Auer airsets with the new Telemetry reporting systems and finish it tomorrow before moving on to pumps.

Anyhow, I will disappear for a while,

Cheers Mat.

Team building exercises like lots of pushups,running and obstacle courses.

I was feeling fairly sore for the rest of the week as was everyone else.

This day was one of those things that are good to experience.........once!!

The situation that happened in the Mount the other day was due to a high amount of cat2 response's in a short period of time(5 minutes)

We were turned out priority one to a cardiac condition and were met on scene by IC paramedic (I wasn't aware of Yahl being responded there as they didn't turn up) and assisted them as well supplying a driver for another case.

All our crew have done advanced resus and oxygen therapy which obviously is handy in these situations.

Keep in mind these calls don't happen everyday but it is better to have someone help out (fire service) if the ambo's get caught short.

Will be interesting if we do eventually get an auto defibrillator though!!

They asked for you to commit to 4 years at Mount Gambier and then you can transfer if you wish.

And Blinky, we can't fit much beer in the engine room at the moment because we have 5 appliances at the moment (one is for training though)

I'd like to also take the time to thank everyone here at SAFF for their support and best wishes.

I will stay in touch whilst we are in Adelaide, as I will have my new laptop with me.

Cheers, Mat

The sad thing is that great firery's that you have worked with for a long time have missed out.

We still will get to work and train with them, but it would have been good to have some of them "on shift" with us.

The only difference with the selection process was that you were only competing with others from the Mount Gambier Station and not everyone "off the street" as such.

We still had to complete everything to a satisfactory level like the physical aptitude test (PAT) 1 and 2, literacy and numeracy, abilities profiling etc.

Obviously, some missed out and were disappointed, but they seem to be dealing with it and have moved on to maybe, promotions within retained ranks down the track to replace some of the senior firefighters accepted into career ranks.

Regards, Mat

Went to the local Holden dealer on Saturday for a look and yep, the battery is under a soft cover in the left hand corner of the boot and I believe some options of the car ie Police pack, may have 2 batteries, which I assume would be on the right hand side.

"Countless Firecalls"
Depends on what you can count to!!!!!

also caused chaos to the local gang called "the back door bandits" as this was their local.............

The plate cover (and 40mm of bitumen) launched so high in the sky, that it hit a low flying Cessna.........

I think you would find that even the older Nomex gear was just as subseptable to harm from UV, but since Lion Apparel are guaranteeing performance of the new PBI gear, they are really trying to make sure the gear is looked after EXACTLY how they want.

When we got our gear, they did look into UV cutout on the stations perspex and glass windows, to ensure minimal exposure.

As for bunking overpants, we still do to certain degree, but they are held up higher on the wall by a hook.

Personally, I think we are all lucky to have such good PPE gear, because Fire Services in other states are still way behind!

are respected members of the Dunrootin community.
PF and Manuel were out one day hydrant testing in Dunrootin 34 when out of nowhere..........