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The 4.4,  along with the 12.2,  headed north Wednesday afternoon to help in fighting a range of fires from Bunbury to north of Perth.  The crew consisted of Andy, Alan, Bruce and Mitch with Stevo driving. The 12.2 was driven by a member of the Vasse brigade.

The trucks were part of a fleet from the south west, including Dunsborough and Augusta. Currently there are fires in Wanneroo, Kwinana and Jarrahdale and Glen Iris area of Bunbury.

 

The sixth fire in  Gunyulgup Valley in 11 months claimed a house Monday.

The fire was reported just before 5pm with heavy smoke blowing up the valley. By the time the first fire trucks arrived the Cairn Hill holiday rental property was ablaze and burning embers were in the adjacent paddocks. Yallingup Rural trucks, along with a Metricup truck and other brigades’ light tankers and neighbors took care of the embers and grass fires while the Dunsborough

and Yallingup Coastal urban trucks attacked the house fire. Fortunately, although it was extremely hot, there was little wind and the paddock fires were quickly brought under control. One fire in heavy bush required a bulldozer to make a path for a light tanker to extinguish burning scrub.

Despite a lot of hot and hard work the house was destroyed by the fire and by 9:30pm the fire was effectively out.

There were reportedly 18 appliances at the fire with 72 volunteer firefighters. An ambulance was called to assist one of the firefighters dealing with the house.

According to news reports, the owner of the property, who was there with his family at the time,  said the blaze was started by a power pole catching alight at the bottom of the valley, below the property.  Within less than 10 minutes the property was alight, he said.

Pictures of the Brigade Helping Urban Firefighters Cool Down the Fire

All three brigade trucks were in action Monday, December 23 fighting a grass fire off Puzey Road.

The fire was in a vineyard and the narrow rows made the job more difficult, requiring the use of the front spray bar and static hoses from the work platform.

The brigade was assisted by a Light Tanker from Willyabrub and two fire fighting trailers provided by local contractors/farmers. Despite the 25 kph winds, the fire was prevented from reaching the adjoining bushland. The brigade spent about two hours at the fire scene.

A slashing machine in operation in the vineyard was burnt.

With the busy holiday season approaching the brigade is going to a roster system over Christmas and New Year’s to ensure adequate resources to protect the community.

The brigade, Tuesday night, said good bye and thanked Joe Burley for his seven years of hard work. FCO David Hunt thanked Joe for his many years of work as the training and new members officer at the brigade. It was only 7 years, but it might have felt like 20, David said.

Joe initiated the role of organizing the formal DEFS training process in the brigade and carried this out very efficiently. He was a reliable volunteer for burn offs and did far more than his fair share of this. Along with his firefighting duties he was a hard working Bush Fire Ready coordinator.

Joe joined the brigade after moving down south. He and his wife Cheryl are heading to Tasmania for six months before deciding where to live next.

In other brigade news, the 4.4 and light tanker were in operation on Marrinup last week putting out a fire that had started from a private burn that had not been properly extinguished. There was also a call out Saturday night which turned out to be a false alarm.

This Wednesday the brigade had a two-for-one special. Enroute to a scheduled burn, it was called over to Vintners Ridge to assist Dunsborough in putting out a grass fire.  All three fire fighting units were involved.  Once that fire was out the burn progressed.  A long afternoon.

The brigade has been called out twice recently to extinguish private burns that got out of control. In both cases they resulted from individuals trying to maintain multiple fires. Fortunately in both cases the brigade was able to stop the fires before they got into neighboring bush.

On Thursday, October 23, our new Light Tanker, and our 1.4 were called out, along with Dunsborough units and the 12.2 water tanker. The fire was quickly brought under control but it took another few hours to mop up. The new water tanker played a useful role in allowing a quick refilling turnaround, loading the Dunsborough 3.4 once, the Light Tanker twice, our 1.4 once.

The earlier fire was on the same day as the fire expo in Dunsborough and the quick exit of the trucks from the Dunsborugh parking lot gave a sense of reality to the exhibition. There was no shortage of trucks from around the Busselton region ready to help. Again, the fire was quickly extinguished. Fortunately there was little wind on the day.

 

Brigade Captain Matt Muir is asking the community to make sure anyone burning has adequate resources to control  the fire  and make allowances for a change in wind speed and direction.  This, he says, is especially important this week as after Saturday, November 2,  all fires will require a permit.

Flo, the 12.2 water tanker, made her debut earlier this month, supporting the brigade at a fire in Kalorup.

On Saturday, March 8 the brigade’s 4.4 was called out to assist  Metricup and Kalorup brigades with a pole fire on Gale Rd. The crew was Muir, Hunt, Stevens and Lawrence. The objective was to help put out and overhaul a pile of hay bales that were alight. Other appliances used were a loader, two helitacs and the 12.2 which was driven by Yardley and assisted by McDowell. It took about 8 minutes to load the tanker from a hydrant.

 
On the next day the 4.4 was again called out. This time to assist Metricup and Willyabrup brigades with a fire on Carter Rd. Metricup ( behind Cape Lavender).  According to local press reports, the Fire and Emergency Services community officer, Tim Wall, said the blaze was started by a backpacker who accidently lit a fire.  The crew was Muir, Fisher, Stevens and Jones. Other appliances included two helitacs and the DPAW ‘dozer. The 4.4’s objective was to assist in blacking out and waiting for ‘dozer to arrive to fall a old burning Redgum and put it out. There were about 30 fire fighters at the scene.