Burnover at Dawesley

[Numpty]

I heard Mount Barker had a Burnover at the Dawesley fire nothing was said on the news, I'm assuming everybody was OK?

Cheers

[Alex]

I wont name which trucks, but i heard three appliances got burnt over.

Keen to hear from someone who was actually there with some info if there willing to share. What were the conditions and what exactly happened?

Hope all are well.

[Shiner]

It had happened before we got to the foreground but talk on the radio was of three appliances involved.

The terrain is certainly rugged with many gullies, near impassable climbs with lots of surface rock and houses and sheds dotted around.

Plenty of tyre damage done over the day and there is also rumours of at least one truck suffering significant damage to bodywork and underbody fittings. Not sure the newer appliances are really suited to this type of fire.

The bombers did a good job once they arrived and certainly assisted the ground crews to deal with some very inaccessible areas of fire.

[rescue5271]

I spoke to someone who was at this fire and they said it was a small burnover and was unaware of any appliance damage...I did see on pager site that one Barker appliances was in for repairs...

[pumprescue]

I agree with shiner, the new appliances just aren't cut out for the heavy off road work without some sort of damage, those old Hino's might be slow and unsuitable for anything, but they are 100% when it comes to offroad rural fires, which is essentially what they are set up for, a water tank, pump and no lockers underneath.

But we can't have it all!

[bert]

No Burn over occurred.  B34Ps Pump failed during attacking one of the flanks of the fire, leaving the crew with no pressure. The truck was on burnt ground, so the guys just waited until the flank went past and it was safe to drive out. Another crew got anxious when they saw the truck disappear in the smoke and called it in.
At one stage N24P became stuck on some rocks, damaged lockers and tyres etc. Other crews knocked down the fire before it got to them.
Certainly agree that the newer trucks are not built for that nature of work.
 

[Fire000]

No Burn over occurred.  B34Ps Pump failed during attacking one of the flanks of the fire, leaving the crew with no pressure. The truck was on burnt ground, so the guys just waited until the flank went past and it was safe to drive out. Another crew got anxious when they saw the truck disappear in the smoke and called it in.
At one stage N24P became stuck on some rocks, damaged lockers and tyres etc. Other crews knocked down the fire before it got to them.
Certainly agree that the newer trucks are not built for that nature of work.
 

Timely reminder for us all that pumps can and do fail. Good to hear the crew involved had their heads screwed on and went to/ were on burnt ground.


Agree with the above comments that the new trucks simply don't cut the mustard in terms of ground clearance and ability to go offroad. As much as i hate the things, the old school Hino FT163's are fantastic offroad and can leave some/most of the newer appliances in their tracks. A good example was over at Ngarkat a few years back going through the Mallee scrub.


Trouble is the funding, Arthur and his merry men are forced to make the money they are allocated go as far as it can - and in many cases this involves designing a dual purpose rural/urban appliance. Things like lockers close to the ground simply do not work on rural trucks, they're asking to be ripped off on a log/rock. Positive to see a rollout of more QRVs, perhaps this will help on rural jobs?