SA Firefighter

only 5% allowed to be burnt each year...
maybe HR "over-achievements" are a reflection of what needs to be burnt
vs what the "crisp, clean country air" mob will tolerate on their Sunday drives...

My brigade has rarely received invites to participate in local burns.
More often we hear about it a day or so before commencement.
Sometimes not even that.
Almost never as an invitation
More often as a notice of what DEWNR are intending to do - live with it...

Raven already stated that the parent said the crash only just happened.
And that they later heard SAAS arriving.
Entirely reasonable to immediately check if AdFire had already received a report.
Or not.
Only takes a phone call...

A nasty little exercise which gives everyone a bit of exercise, and can be run by 2 or 3 people with minimal planning or notice - maybe just a couple of phone calls to get permission to access property.

Take 2 rolls of red/white marking tape to a random bush fire risk location.
Walk them out fully from a common "ignition point", about 20 degrees apart.
These are your fire "edges".
"Respond" the brigade.

On arrival, the two tape-holders start walking, towing the tape.
Steadily in grass-land, more slowly in scrub, depending upon the conditions you want to simulate.
Make sure there are fences en-route.  :evil:
Also structures which may need to be defended.
Gives everyone a work-out,

• IC who has to plan, request, assign & re-prioritise resources to achieve RECeo,
• crew leaders who have to figure out how best to use their appliance & people
• hose-draggers who need to keep adding lengths fast enough to run down the "head".

Almost infinite variations possible.
If it starts looking too easy, chuck in a spot fire, or have a pump or BWC break-down, or a blown hose, or a wind change, etc.   :evil:

Can be run several weeks running without losing interest, rotating people through the various roles, especially leadership of crews & IC.

Quote from: kiwifirefighter on December 15, 2012, 08:02:22 PM
It might not be worth while buying a new chassis as i know that 2 years ago the appliance spent time at Moores having its deck fixed after it snapped, and i don know how they fixed it, but our appliance had supported welded underneath so that might be a reason for not transplanted the back onto another chassis

I note that later Moores builds have a straight tray rather than the split level
one on Yank 34. One less point of failure to engineer around I guess...

according to SACFS promotions unit,
Yank 34 : Make and Model: Hino Ranger Pro 8Z
I wonder if it's the same model as the Hino lemon which was under
Blackwood CAFS for a year or so.  Spent more time in repair than
on the road, or so it seemed at the time. IIRC the tally was
something like 2 engines, 3 diffs & maybe a gearbox in <2 years.

I'd be wondering if the axle was damaged at Coomunga, but clocked up enough
km on the trip home to fail other components. Lots of ankle & suspension
breaking holes in limestone. I recovered a couple of cones with "Yank 34"
on them from one such hole. Almost 1M across & nearly as deep. Tight
squeeze between the hole & a tree...

Did you mean it's the axle that's possibly beyond economical repair,
or the whole appliance?

Several servo's near us out of diesel. Our trucks now topped-up.
Member who also volunteers with SAAS took their ambulance to 7 servo's this
afternoon before finding one with diesel. Another associate who drove a truck
Melb - Adel today, was unable to buy fuel in several towns, & limited to 100L
in others.

Good news according to Ch9 news - a tanker docked at Outer Harbour late today.
Deliveries should start tonight or tomorrow. Restoring normal reserves could take
a few weeks - there just aren't enough supplies coming out of the refinery or
local distribution tankers to replenish every servo & depot faster than that.

Have already advised Sandy of this one, but in case other Fraser 34 brigades can check their vehicles sooner & also feed back through proper channels...

While doing cab lift training the other day, one of the eagle-eyes in the brigade spotted some wear on the flexible hose to either the cabin spray or spray bar operating valve. The location is just inside the front of the front wheel arch.

On investigation, we found the hose rubbing against the end of a bolt securing brake(?) lines to the top of the chassis cross-member. The wear can only be seen with the cab fully raised, & in this state, the hose flexes well away from the bolt & bracket.

At this stage, it appears our hose integrity is ok, but left alone, the bolt would likely wear right through the hose.  As a quick fix, I loosely cable tied the hose forward to other hoses in the same orientation, just enough to move it off the bolt. Will need to plan a long term fix - might need Fraser to retrofit a slightly longer hose.

The other thing to remember is that 10 days being used 24/7 on bull-dozed tracks through limestone country is a far cry from normal appliance wear & tear. Particularly when the water supply is several km away. The dirt between rocks quickly turns to bull-dust, and the suspension has. to. work. over. every. single. rock.

Even with the best intentions & care, the appliance is probably "aging" a few years 'normal use' in those few days.

The catch with the green T-cards is that the crew on the appliance has to care about it enough to complete one.  All too easy to drive into staging with the comment that there are "no problems". No-one will be any the wiser until they next go to use it. I know at least one crew cared enough about our appliance to book it off-line. Many thanks to you if you are reading this. Fortunately nothing major.

However, there are a few things which worked just fine when it went away, but do not work now. Siren, dust contaminated OxyViva & failed pneumatic ladder gantry would not have been logged on a T-card as they were not used (to my knowledge) at Coomunga.

Other things would only be noticed by other people with sharp eyes.  My driver spotted a fresh oil patch where one of our appliances had stood idling a few minutes earlier (One Tree Hill 24). Called the crew, confirmed the leak, & sent back to staging immediately.

The other thing which no T-card will capture is the cleaning which needs to be done on return to station. Dust & soot gets ***everywhere***. The outside was washed, and the cabin cleaned in Pt Lincoln, and very well too, but only to the extent that nothing inside it was lifted or moved in doing so. Neither were the lockers & contents cleaned. It took the whole brigade an entire evening to clean & restow all tools & etc. It's all very well to say the appliance belongs to the CFS rather than the brigade, however the brigade members supply the labour to maintain it. While there are no hard feelings about it - all appreciate that its use by others was necessary - it's not quite the same as cleaning up your own mess...   :|

Quote from: Stefan KIRKMOE on October 22, 2012, 05:56:22 AM
Sorry to disappoint but whoever was waiting to bid on Burnside Pumper may just need to find another truck....

Been there, done that before.
Got a great 34P out of it but had to fight HQ at every step.
And they weren't even paying for it...

Thanks Stefan.

I see in a memo that CFS groups' Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) tax status
is being cancelled / abandoned, with unanimous agreement of the Groups.
CFS is writing to the ATO on behalf of the groups to cancel as from, IIRC,
01-December.

Hasn't been any comment about this on-line, and I haven't asked my Groupies
"why" yet.  But I thought I'd chuck it out there for comment anyway.

I have now had it verbally from three different directions, yet read
nothing whatsoever, official or unofficial, that Burnside CFS is no more.
Gone.
Closed doors for ever.
Handed area & hardware off to MFS & top-of-the-hill brigades.

Now, neither Burnside CFS nor Mt Lofty Group strike me as the sort of
people who would let the brigade go silently into the night.  Nor does
even a casual glance at their response area suggest that this would be
either practical or even a good idea.

Is anyone on list in a position to confirm / debunk this story?

cheers

Yeah. 
A similar story gets run every year because not much changes every year.
The population gets bigger, the roads get more congested, & the lemmings put
more & more fuel closer & closer to their homes.

I believe there was talk of red-flagging streets & properties which are
indefensible / death-traps like they do in some parts of USA & Canada.
IIRC it was kyboshed on the grounds that it is illegal to scare people with
specific information directly relevant to individuals. eg. your street is so
narrow & overgrown that a fire truck cannot get into it.  [insert bleak humour icon here]...

Quote from: bittenyakka on March 22, 2012, 05:01:37 PM
What is the story at Eden hills? feel free to PM me if it shouldn't be posted

Buildings have finite life-spans. Eden has reached theirs.
Cracks in walls, doors too low to fit new 34's,
location an utter pig to exit during school pick-up/drop-off, etc, etc.

Land swap around the corner was arranged to face onto Shepherd's Hill Rd. Permits to drop/replant trees sorted, etc, etc.

No money.

SFEC recently increased to 3 vehicles so might need redesign from what was planned.

agree with Alex.
On the other hand, reading the detailed report of the Linton "incident"
would have me rather be on the deck with sidelines & fire blanket than in the
cab with halo, hope & not much else...

Cherry Gardens website died with Chariot Internet.
Was an interesting exercise for me in HTML to put it together.
Complete PITA to keep it current (after the first 12 months, for me anyway)
My genuine & heart-felt best wishes to the people who keep
their brigade websites current & active.

Quote from: safireservice on April 05, 2009, 07:46:50 PM

Quote from: jaff on April 05, 2009, 01:03:51 PM
Is that a Expiry date?.............or a Best by date :-D

Ahhh.......so thats the horrible smell around the PPE racks. Someones helmet has gone off!!

pretty sure mine has... permanent dead sock smell in the car.
thanks for the reminder to give it its annual rinse & disinfection
:-)

is that the form which came out about 12 years ago when ESL was shiny & new,
and heaps of vollies spat the chewie about more freaking paperwork, & filed it
immediately in the circular in-box?
I thought they were a short term thing, not an on-going requirement. 
But back then, I was a baggy-arse & didn't see the accompanying notes, so....

Quote from: Robert-Robert34 on January 21, 2012, 06:25:50 AM
I thought the councils up in Adelaide had rapid response crews to deal with debris on roads such as yesterdays situation

They do.
But this wasn't in Adelaide.
According to the media, TDU did arrange for a contract sweeper to go over the
road, and it arrived before the CFS crew/s had finished. 
Given that a stage is 120-150 km or so, and this is a first time, it would seem
unreasonable for the TDU to have had one stationed every 20km or so needed to
achieve a reasonable response time.

I hope the CFS crew/s took pictures. Putting tacks out to puncture the tyres of
racing bikes, even if it was "just" the public being targetted, is only one
step short of setting man-traps in my view.

Try watching this video just once.  :evil:
Research CFA appliance through floodwater at Eltham on Christmas Day
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catalan2009/6571618471/#secret5ce9d13eee

Diesel exhaust doing particulate burn has also been known to get very hot.
At least ours are sensibly pointing straight up, unlike NSW & Qld where they
point out the side.   :-o

More seriously....
Complete rebuild of the plumbing on our Moore's 34 to un-strangle the pump,
and move tank fill to the 1900L/min LP stage instead of the 600L/min HP stage.
(more like 300L/min at any sensible pressure which doesn't threaten to blow
the top off the tank.)

Lockers set lower down the sides of all appliances so that everyone can reach
everything, in the style of the old Adelaide Fire Company 4WD pumpers like
Coro Valley 24P or, more recently, Blackwood CAFS.
Aside from the ergonomics - a safety issue - it lowers the vehicle CoG.
Retro-fit swing-down steps to give average height humans access to the top shelves.

Rural appliances with stowage for portable pump, generator & chainsaw/s as standard equipt.

Stowage for proper long-handled tools, rather than break-apart tools which... break.

Some sort of basic light mast as standard equipt on all medium & heavy appliances.
The little manual one on the TFS medium tanker would be perfectly adequate for 99% of tasks.
(It is also hard to play night games of strike team cricket when you can't light the field of play)

AED & O2 as standard equipt, for the sake of us old farts who represent a big
percentage of the aging CFS volunteer population.

M1 Abrams reconfigured for fire-fighting.  :-D   :evil:

And that's the point - we can't build one appliance that will make everyone happy.
Or even two.
Since our SFECs are based purely on our own local hazards, and
since 99% of jobs most appliances will ever attend are in their home area,
it makes sense to build most suitable for that area.

This more readily achieved with 4 standard heavy 4WD appliances than just two.
As with the original plastic fantastics, their workings can be made so nearly
the same that any competent operator could work any appliance without brain strain.

Oh, and Dave P - you didn't see Cherry Gardens at OTH.  Would have been Cherryville.
Cherry Gardens was initially paged in error, but stopped before they could join
the strike team...  ;-).