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This note is from our outgoing Secretary, Duncan Gardner.

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The Yallingup Rural AGM ran for a minute under two hours, despite our best efforts to speed it up. It would have been longer if there had not been an Eagles home game! The committee changes are as follows: Duncan has been replaced by Sue Baker as secretary. Mark Fisher is now an FCO, in addition to David Hunt & Mark Standish Duncan & Chris Ayres are now Lieutenants, with Douglas moving to the top of the ladder. Mitch and David T languish in mid-table obscurity. Mitch figures again, adding to his duties as Beer Officer with Social Director. Ciao Carlo. Gerald joins the committee in the new position of Auxiliary coordinator. Also, the irreplaceable Barb is just that. Discussions continue and we hope to have at least part-time help soon. Volunteers required – perhaps an auxiliary?

Many thanks to Swings and Roundabouts for subsidising our post-AGM lunch.

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Welcome to the new office bearers and many thanks to those passing on the baton, or should that be the ‘branch’.

The 2012 AGM will be held at 1100 on Sunday, the 6th of May, at the Fire Shed on Caves Road.

It will be followed by lunch at Swings & Roundabouts – funded by the Brigade.

Partners are welcome to the meeting and/or the lunch: normally the meeting will take about 2 hours.

The Agenda can be found under the Organisation:/Brigade Minutes tab above.

Several days ago there was a small running fire in some leaf litter in the lagoon road area.  It was caused by a resident burning off without a permit.

The fire prompted a 000 call, but was extinguished by several of our members who live nearby.

The message here is that Permits are still required, but at the moment they are unlikely to be issued until there is some significant rain.

 

On Monday morning at about 1030 Dean Henry spotted a pole top fire in Caves Road between Gunyulgup and  Marrinup Drives on Michael Gregg’s property.  He called it into David Hunt and 000 then efficiently put out the initial leaf litter fire at the base of the pole – wearing his PPE pink flip flops.

Comms in Perth tasked both Yallingup Coastal and Yallingup Rural.

David was first on the scene, and Yallingup Coastal arrived with their LT (Kim Standish and Paul Blight) and we turned out our 1.4 with Mark Fisher, Pete Stewart, Duncan Gardner, Bruce Lawrence and Joe Burley.  When they arrived the fire was dropping charcoal to the ground but there were no more spot fires.

Western Power arrived 10 minutes after being called, isolated the power to the pole in another 10 minutes, and re-established power 10 minutes after that.

As you can see from the photo, the mighty 1.4 had plenty of pressure to deal with the situation.  Alternatively, if you don’t look too closely at the photo, it could be Joe demonstrating that he doesn’t have prostate problems.

Interestingly, that pole was adjacent to the one which started the fire two years ago that burned into Kangaroo Parade.

An efficient job, well done by all concerned.

The 2012 FESA Training Calendar is online here. And Course Coordinator Joe Burley’s explanation is available here.

The fast response by Rural and the other local brigades and DEC Sunday stopped a fire on Wardanup Hill from escaping into the national park and also destroying houses on private property surrounded by the park.

The SMS went out at 10:49 and by 11:05 tankers were attacking the fire. They quickly set up a defensive line along a fire break and stopped the fire there. By 11:30 they were joined by a helitac which carried out numerous attacks on the eastern flank. The fire was under control by around 1:00 although a wind change caused a further brief flare up.

The 4.4 with Tich driving and Stevo, Annie, Doug, Duncan and Mark F was the first Rural tanker to arrive, quickly followed by the light tanker with Joe and Bruce. The 1.4 was later sent with Andy, David W, Dave T and Tony C. Blaze gave a helping hand to the Dunsborough crew.

David H returned in the evening to monitor and Joe and Bruce returned with the 1.4 Monday morning to mop up.

It was thought the fire might have been started by a cigarette or the previous night’s bbq.

More pictures available here.