80 firefighters train on farm buildings
Farm buildings that are earmarked for demolition when a planned residential development goes ahead on the property proved an ideal training ground recently for district Country Fire Authority brigades.
Eighty local fire brigade members from 12 brigades from the Baw Baw Group took part in the exercise that was centred on rubbish being burned in a pit in an old milking shed where sparks escaped to ignite several other farm buildings nearby including a haystack.
Second Lieutenant Dave Blacker of the Noojee CFA, one of the organiser of the training exercise, said it gave the brigades an insight into problems of containing a fire when buildings are clustered close together.
It provided a good challenge for fire fighters and crew leaders and knowledge of how to deal with such a site and buildings, he said.
"The scenario on the property of low and small structures is the bread and butter for a lot of rural brigades".
Mr Blacker said skills practised on the day included ventilation, dealing with smoke, protecting a highly flammable asset such as a hay stack and protecting fire fighters against asbestos and the use of dry chemical fire fighting materials.
He said that training a lot of people toogether was also especially important for small brigades that could be called to help at larger structure fires.
Mr Blacker praised the devloper Parklea and its project manager Luke Van Lambart for offering use of the farm site in Lillico Rd, Warragul, and doing all it could to make the training exercise a success.
After the session at the former farm the CFA volunteers moved on to the Baw Baw Skills Centre in Warragul where the focus was on dealing with hazardous materials.