Surprising the judgements that can be made by one photo!
Well, here are some facts from someone there at this fire.
The moment before this shot was taken, the firefighter without the helmet had his pump setup and supplied with mains water.
He was then asked to run the line he is on, and put water on the job for a short period before being relieved by another firefighter.
Some pump operators don't wear helmets at the pump, but he should of used one where he was at the time - lesson learned on his behalf!
The "screw" or Station Officer made a quick adjustment to throttle whilst passing the pump.(The particular S/O in the picture has been in the job 46 years so yes, he does know how to use it!)
The CFS member in the picture was one of a few who were either in the cafe or cinema when the fire broke out and volunteered their services and were gratefully accepted. (we had 9 personnel and 2 appliances in attendance)
The end result was that a historic, stone and timber (a lot of timber)
building valued at $1.5 million + was saved with only around $15-20,000 damage occurring.
So I would say that this was a good save, and job well done by the MFS and CFS guys in attendance and like every job, you always have a debrief and discuss what you could improve on next time.
(after all, were not all perfect!)
Regards, Mat
