WITH summer just around the corner and the potential for a difficult fire season likewise part of that, Gringegalgona CFA captain, John Dundon, organised an afternoon last weekend seeking to facilitate farmers and property owners engaging quickly in emergency fire situations with their own equipment.

When a fire breaks out, it’s often a local community member who can be first on the scene, and it’s that ability that can make the difference between a fire that’s rapidly controlled and one that requires major levels of CFA personnel and units to contain.

John said he was keen to clear away any levels of bureaucracy and see an amicable collaboration between the CFA and the non-CFA community, as everyone has the same goal – protect property and lives.

He was thrilled to see such a good turnout from not just locals on Sunday, but also from CFA members in other areas wanting to take the private recognition process back to their own communities.

“There’s plenty of people that want to be involved in the local fire brigade, but the hours of training - there’s too much paperwork and not enough practicality,” John said.

“At the end of the day, all these people are about is putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.

“The specialised firefighting where you need breathing apparatus and all those different things - we’ve got people … in brigades, they’re skilled and they’re still wanted, but when it comes to grass and scrub fires, that’s what these fellas are all about.”

CFA District 5 commander, Rainer Kiessling, said he was contacted by John to see what could be done and was happy to discover there were already procedures in place to check equipment and formalise permissions.

“This is an initiative by the ‘Gringy’ captain … to get all the farm fire units in his district registered to be able to get onto a fire ground and be, obviously, safe and have the ability to get through the traffic management checkpoints,” Rainer said.

“It’s really, really beneficial for the community to get together preseason, make sure they’ve got everything they need and for us to engage with them and say, ‘well, what (equipment) have you got?’ and then, ‘what recommendations can we make, to basically get you up to speed?’ and then we’ll issue them with a private firefighting registration sticker.

“The CFA has had this programme for a long time.

“But with the rise that we’re seeing in private units attending fires, due to the decline in overall volunteer numbers within the CFA, and indeed right around the country - every volunteer organisation is haemorrhaging volunteers at the moment - we’re seeing a lot more private units, which is primarily we think, due to the increase in difficulty of the training process and actually becoming a volunteer.

“This is really about meshing what the CFA can deliver on the fire ground, which is that command and control structure and the big gear like the aeroplanes and extra trucks and all that sort of thing as well as building resilience in the local community.

“We can scale a job down a lot quicker (when we’ve) got all these private units here who are happy and willing to look after the job.”

John said the investment farmers had in their own properties was a key factor in motivating their timely response, and locals also had a great advantage of excellent knowledge of the nearby terrain.

“Soon as the whistle goes, we just jump in our equipment and we go straight to the fire,” he said.

“Whereas to try and get enough people to go on the tanker - it takes time.”

Rainer agreed and said, “the whole philosophy is around keeping the fire small”.

“The only way you’re going to do that is by getting lots of gear there quickly and that’s where the private units shine.

“A good example of that is last year we had a fire on the Cavendish Road and the first units on scene there were private units, and they basically rounded it up before the CFA got there.

“It’s a key learning - certainly for me - and when John said, ‘I want to organise a day about bringing all the community out with their farm units and we can have a look at them all’, I said, ‘I reckon the CFA has actually got a process for that’ and we dug it out, and lo and behold, it was all there.

“So I really commend the CFA on having that process and having the ability to integrate the private units into our strategies.

“We’re just about making sure that the guys do it safely and the vehicles are roadworthy and the wheels aren’t going to fall off or anything like that.”

John echoed that safety was the primary concern - “the first thing you got to think about is your own personal wellbeing” and he was clear he wanted locals to be wise with their commitment to help.

“Use your noodle,” he said, pointing to his head.

“We don’t go into places where - there’s a cardinal rule, never back off. Never find reverse gear in a fire unit. If you’ve got to reverse, you shouldn’t be there.”

Nareen CFA group officer, Wayne Sullivan from Tarrayoukyan, was also at the event looking to see what he could take back to his own area about 20 kilometres to the north-west of Gringegalgona.

“It’s common sense, it’s a good idea,” he said.

“It’s probably gone full circle - when the CFA was first established it was all private units, so it’s taken a long time for the wheel to go around again.

“Out this far in the country we’re not very involved in the politics or don’t want to be involved in the politics of it all that much, it’s more of a community protection and personal protection (thing).

“It provides a fair bit more of an asset protection that if people have got their own units, you’re able to use them and know that you are covered - and doing the right thing too.

“But you’re not getting frowned upon for coming on to the fire ground in something that’s not (painted) red.”

Wayne summed up the feeling of the locals in terms of getting fires dealt with fast.

“Nine times out of 10 you just want to get to the fire, put it out and p*** off home,” he said.