Fire Prevention....
The most effective way of fire-fighting is to prevent fires in the first place. Our brigade does Fire Prevention in many ways - Hazard Reduction, Public Education and Logistical Planning are the main ones.
The type of vegetation and terrain in our area combines with some extreme weather conditions in our Australian summer to create incredibly dangerous fire situations. We have a mediterranean climate and very steep slopes covered in grassland and dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest inhabited with much wildlife including kangaroos, koalas, echidnas and wombats. Amongst this vegetation we have a large number of residences.
In order to keep everything safe during the fire danger season (usually 1 December to 30 April each year) our brigade conducts controlled burn-offs. In this way we use a controlled, low-intensity fire to take away the low level fuels and thus either prevent or lessen the damage caused by uncontrolled wildfires. We, in consultation with our local council, burn-off along the side of some major 'escape route' roads, people's properties, areas of parks or reserves, piles of cleared flammable vegetation and occasionally areas of National Park.
Controlled burn-offs allow some species of native vegetation to regenerate and reproduce and protect people, property and wildlife from disastrous large fires.
It is vital that local residents appreciate the risk of fires in our area and do everything possible to reduce the danger to themselves, others and wildlife yet still be able to enjoy and live in harmony with our beautiful bush environment. The CFS employs Community Fire Safe coordinators in areas such as ours to help people understand how wildfires spread, what dangers they pose, what they can do to prevent or reduce the risks of wildfire and what to do if they are faced with an approaching wildfire. Part of this role in our area has involved members of our brigade going to local streets and helping people identify fire risks and hazards in their own and their neighbours properties. We hope that this encourages people to become involved in hazard reduction and fire safety themselves and will lead to less severe fires with less impact on the community.
While we are lucky to have very in-depth local knowledge when it comes to fire-fighting in our own area, we need every bit of information available on our side.
We keep Pre-Plans of larger risks such as shopping centres, schools, hospitals and nursing hostels so that we are best prepared with up-to-date knowledge. Pre-plans are maps of complexes that show the layout, risks (such as LPG cylinders and chemical stores), and things that we might use to help us fight the fire (such as water hydrants, indoor hose-reels, hydrant boosters and exits).
During our normal training we also familiarise ourselves with local premises and use hydrants in our training drills. If we know where a local water source is available, where all of the entry or exit points are or how to find extra resources in emergencies it can make a big difference to how quickly we are able to work.
The more we know the better we can do our job, so logistics are extremely important both before and during an emergency.
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