Keeping firefighters safe
New trucks built at Crows Nest
AS A large bushfire continues to burn near Karara, a number of Rural Fire Service crews are fighting it with those iconic yellow trucks.
The majority of those trucks were built at the Quik Corp workshop in Crows Nest.
Quik Corp Crows Nest branch manager Mal Assim said it was an honour to be able to contribute to the statewide efforts to keep Queenslanders safe.
“Most of my team are from the Crows Nest area,” Mr Assim said.
“Nearly all of them are volunteers with the Rural Fire Brigade and one is an auxiliary firefighter with our Fire and Rescue Service.
“When they get a call to go out on a job, we let them go, and they give us feedback as well when they come back.”
Mr Assim said the bulk of materials used to construct the fire trucks came from Toowoomba, further contributing to the region’s economy.
He said between the Crows Nest operations and those of the company’s main office at Warana on the Sunshine Coast, they would build 114 fire trucks for the Rural Fire Service this financial year alone.
Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford visited the Crows Nest workshop this week, after an earlier visit in September, to see how the construction of 114 trucks ordered by QFES this financial year was going.
“Prices vary from truck to truck, but on average a Rural Fire Service truck costs between $150,000 and $200,000,” the minister told
The Chronicle.
“It’s quite a bit of money when you add it all together.
Mr Crawford said having the trucks constructed in Crows Nest was of huge economic benefit to the town.
“They’re building these things from the ground up,” he said.
“They build up the back of the lorries, spray them all yellow, add all the equipment – a huge amount of pride that goes into it.
“More than 20 people who live in the Crows Nest area work with the company and they in turn reinvest in their own community every time they drop in for a beer at the pub or head into town for an evening meal.
“Crows Nest residents used to make their livings out of felling timber and now one of the town’s main employers builds the equipment that puts out fires – many of which are in bushland.”