What we do.....

The name "Country Fire Service" can in fact be misleading - there have been a number of bushfires in recent times which have made the CFS's profile appear to concentrate on grassfires and bush or wildfires, fires such as the Ash Wednesday Fires, the NSW Fires and the ever threatening Adelaide Hills fires are always the images of the CFS that people identify our role with, however, in fact this is only approximately 30% of the total callouts that the Eden Hills brigade attend.

Our area is an urban/rural area as close as <10km from the CBD of Adelaide, and the majority of our callouts are urban related. We have many structures such as shops, hospitals, nursing homes and other commercial complexes connected to Automatic Fire Alarms, as well as a growing number of private residences, accounting for some of our callouts. Although house and other structure fires are only a small percentage of our callouts, these usually cause the greatest amount of damage due to the high cost of building and furnishing a structure. Not all structure fires are large in nature, many are smaller domestic fires such as chimney, switchboard and kitchen fires.

Not every incident we attend involves fire, in 1986 and 1993 we were out sand-bagging and pumping water to save homes and their contents. We have also helped protect homes from burst water mains and storm damage including those that have lost their roofs or been hit by falling trees. One of our increasing area of callout is motor vehicle accidents. While we often are required only to provide fire protection and clean oil or petrol from the roadway, we are also called to perform rescues using our Hydraulic Heavy Rescue Equipment in order to extricate casualties. There are many other emergency services we attend to such as hazardous chemical spillages, animal rescues, search & rescue, ambulance assistances, etc., etc., etc.

Our members are also involved in: radio communications - radio operations at the fire station or control centre during fire and/or emergency callouts; map reading; controlled burn-offs - fire hazard reduction procedures; pumping water - supplying firefighters and transport vehicles conveying water for fire suppression.; relief crewing for CFS volunteers at major incidents; operations planning, field and Group/Brigade administration; transportation logistics; providing meals and refreshments at incidents; maintaining and servicing CFS Brigade equipment, fire appliances, command vehicles and communications equipment; attending a weekly training night session at our CFS fire station and gaining knowledge and skills by completing CFS courses; conducting fund-raising programs with the proceeds going towards new Brigade equipment; public education - providing advice on fire prevention, property layout, clean-up programs; holding open house at the fire station, hold fire demonstrations, parades of fire units (with Smokey the Koala) and shopping centre displays; and giving school classroom presentations on fire, burn and scald safety.

There are roles, also, for people who are unable or do not want to do operational fire-fighting. Our members have to do financial, administrative and logistical tasks. Recommissioning equipment, maintenance, minute-taking at meetings, record keeping and even catering are jobs that are done by non-operational members or active fire-fighters, any useful skill can be utilised to the benefit of the brigade.