Volunteer Information Night - 26 February 2013

The Volunteer Information Night went off really well tonight with about 100 prospective volunteers coming along to get information and talk to the brigades they might join. Thanks to you all for coming along, and also to Mark Beech and Rob Gore for their presentations. Here's a picture of the crowd captured from Michael Joyce's mobile phone.

ACT Rural Fire Service at the Canberra Show

We've been beating them off with a stick (well, not really) out at the show. The ACTRFS stand looks great thanks to the efforts of Virginia Dixon, Dave & Pauline Wassall, Simon Pond and Brioni Young who all put in a great effort yesterday to set up the stand. Thanks to the rest of the RFS staff who also helped out. Check out the photos below.

Dave Wassall providing advice

The ACTRFS stand at the show

Gettimg the message out on where to go to get information

People were really interested in the all the messaging around our house prop



All the things you need to pack into your bushfire survival kit



RAFT Crew heads to Tasmania

On Saturday 16/1/2013 4 of our volunteer RAFT crew members headed off to Tasmania to assist in fire suppression activities in the Cambridge area. Our RAFT crews are highly sought after by other states and territories and it's alway good for us to be able to help, even if it is in a small way.

Our best wishes go with the crew and we wish them a safe return.

From left: Our RAFT crew at Canberra Airport before they left (what a good looking crew!!)

New Recruits get Up-close and Personal with some Live Fire

Our latest intake of new recruits completed their training today (17/2/2013) by participating in a hazard reduction burn on Simpson's Hill in Gilmore. From all accounts they had a great day and they all managed to get their new PPE nice and dirty!. Here's a few shots from the day taken by Michael Joyce and Gary Hooker.

Crews are briefed by Dave Wassall who was the Incident Controller for the day.

The new recruits learnt that fire will burn through green grass!

Some strip lighting in Bravo Sector (which was led by Peter Wulf from Southern)

Good teamwork backing up a buddy

The Northern part of the burn went really well - the residents were very happy to see this bit cleared

Lots of smoke, but everyone had a good time

"Now this is how we approach a drip torch!"

The burn went well and achieved the desired outcome

The crew in GUN10 practice their burn-over procedure

Matt Bolton (Hall Captain) on scene.

 

RFS staff visit the new Cotter Dam

Grant Morey from Rivers Brigade (who works as the safety officer at the new Cotter Dam site) invited RFS staff for a tour of the new dam so that we could update our maps and our local knowledge of the area now that the dam is nearing completion.

It was very impressive to see the dam close-up and to see the scale of the whole operation. Thanks Grant for an enjoyable tour.

Grant leads us down onto the top of the dam - it still has 5 mtrs to be added to the north & south ends

Looking back across the dam to the southern end

Looking to the northern end

The old Cotter Dam is dwarfed by the new one

Inside the dam there is a network of tunnels for maintenance and monitoring of the dam wall

Once you get o the bottom you get an idea of how big this thing is!