Strike Team 12 Bravo

[Treads]

As some of you would be aware I headed down to Victoria to assist with the bushfires last week. I arrived home yesterday, so I thought I'd share some photos with you. It was a very humbling experience being down there. Random people would walk up and say thankyou, shake your hand or beep their horn. I had exhausted Victorian Firefighers pour their hearts out about how helpless they felt during and after '****ty Saturday' :(

We flew down via Essendon in a fleet of SAAB 340's

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/337.jpg

Stayed at the Mantra hotel on the first night and had to be up at 5am to go to the staging area for our first day.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/338.jpg

Healesville staging area was pretty well organised, we got fed well and the appliances were serviced when needed.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/339.jpg

I was the RFS Strike Team Leader for ST12B. That meant I drove a command vehicle (the crappy navara in the photo above) and was in charge of 25 firefighters + 1 communications assistnt in my rig. We manned 5 heavy tankers and were tasked to the Toolangi SF to assist in the Blowhard sector of the Murrindindi complex fires.

In the same complex of fires were Strike Teams 10B, 11B, 13A, 14A & 15A. We also had 3 NSW Ambulance service SCAT team vehicles assigned to us for the duration.

The forest down there is awesome, the trees are just amazing (and bloody scary when they fall over! :eek: )

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/340.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/341.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/342.jpg

We worked with RFS Strike Team 13A for the first 2 days until they were rotated back to NSW. At one stage we had a firefighter down sick from 13A, and I had to look after 51 firefighters and 10 vehicles for the rest of the day :o Let me tell you, that puts some stress on you when there's trees falling down all around them!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/343.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/344.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/345.jpg

We left the fireground on the second day and were driving back to Healesville from Toolangi when a guy flagged me down and begged me to help with some spot fires that were threatening his property. His eyes were like dinner plates when next moment 5 heavy tankers roared over the hill behind me, turned left into his gate and proceeded to smash the 3 grassfires and 1 bushfire that had spotted into unburnt ground.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/346.jpg

By the time the local CFA trucks arrived we'd bought them all under control :D

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/347.jpg

On leaving the fireground for the final time on our last day we got some photos of our strike team.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/348.jpg

Most of the Blowhard crew :)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/349.jpg

My Strike team

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/350.jpg

My assistant and I with our POS command vehicle :wasntme:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/351.jpg

All my photos are at: Vic Fires 09 pictures by treads_photo - Photobucket (http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll250/treads_photo/Vic%20Fires%2009/)

Cheers

[Blknight.aus]

good drills.

Wish Id been able to abandon my course and get down to help out.

[Bushie]

As some of you would be aware I headed down to Victoria to assist with the bushfires last week.....................................

That meant I drove a command vehicle (the crappy navara ....)


That just about sums up Navaras :twisted::twisted:


Martyn

[Treads]

That just about sums up Navaras :twisted::twisted:


It has no low-down torque, scored 2 flats and it bottomed out on every hump it encountered. Bloody useless heap of **** :p

[Fusion]

Glad to see you are fine mate ;) . Awesome pics :cool: .

[Bushie]

It has no low-down torque, scored 2 flats and it bottomed out on every hump it encountered. Bloody useless heap of **** :p

Believe me current hiluxes aren't much better. Don't know that you can really blame the flats on it though ;)

The shorty Patrol I had was the best so far

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/02/334.jpg

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

/hijack


Martyn

[Sleepy]

Onya Treads!

Thanks for the great pictures but more importantly ...


Thanks for helping!


:ohyes::ohyes::ohyes:

[DiscoStew]

Good to see you back. Do you expect to do another trip down there or was it a once off? I expect that there is still plenty to do in the not-so-often-mentioned NSW fires or is that all under control now?

[Treads]

Good to see you back. Do you expect to do another trip down there or was it a once off? I expect that there is still plenty to do in the not-so-often-mentioned NSW fires or is that all under control now?

Thanks mate, We've still got crew rotations planned for tomorrow, Thursday & Sunday. Not sure yet if I'll go again, gotta get some work done ;)

All NSW fires are either out or on Patrol status (almost out)

[George130]

Glad your ok. Choppers were still pratoling down at Labertuch (?Spelling). Some trees were still smoldering even. You could see how hot the fire was in some places and where it just raced past some fields to incinerate the next few.
They lost one house down there on the Monday after the fires due to embers.

As you said very friendly locals. Town 5km away where we camped even put on dinner for us!
Farmers even came out to thank us for all the clearing we managed. Seeing the amount of work it just didn't feel like we had done enough to help.

[weeds]

well done Treads....top job

[Fusion]

Hi Treads , Just wondering how long a peat ( spelling ;) ) fire can last under the ground ?

[hiline]

Strike Team 12 Bravo

well done guys and girls

and to any of you guys/girls that came from other States

:clap2: THANKS :clap2:

[BMKal]

Good on you and the rest of your team for going down there to help Treads.

You and all the rest (both locals and from further afield) who have given up your own time and risked your own lives to help out make the rest of us so bloody proud, and lucky, to be able to say that we're Australian.

[Disco300Tdi]

Well done Treads

Another TFB here today and 5 new fires have started, your fire is still "going" and only getting bigger.

The Yea-Murrundindi East complex fire is only approx 30k from home now

[George130]

Not good. Keep safe down there.

[Northy]

Hi Treads , Just wondering how long a peat ( spelling ;) ) fire can last under the ground ?

I know you asked Treads but i thought i could help out. Peat fires can burn underground for very long times, weeks even months or more. You woulld need unreasonably high amounts of rain to put out a peat fire, and they will flare up and start full bush fires. Thats why in some areas when you are camping all cooking has to be done on stoves, no fires on the ground. They are very similar to coal fires because they are one of the first stages of coal production with much more water, and lesser carbon content than coal.

[LandyAndy]

ONYA Treads and all your team.
Great Pics!!!
Andrew

[Treads]

Thanks everyone for their support :BigThumb:

Heading back down again on Sunday as a crew leader for Strike Team 12 Foxtrot. It shall be interesting to see where they have us deployed by then. Tomorrow is looking like another bad day :(

My thoughts are with the guys and girls on the ground there now.

[slug_burner]

Treads and ST12B,

Thank you for coming down at our time of need.

How lucky we are that you and your mates as well as our CFA people are all doing this a volunteers.

Thanks for a great job.

[Bushie]

Thanks everyone for their support :BigThumb:

Heading back down again on Sunday as a crew leader for Strike Team 12 Foxtrot. It shall be interesting to see where they have us deployed by then. Tomorrow is looking like another bad day :(

My thoughts are with the guys and girls on the ground there now.

Mate, - Stay Safe

Talking to one of our guys down there earlier today he was saying they were forecasting into the 40s again for tomorrow (thankfully the forecast now doesn't look that it will be quite that bad) but any wind will be bad.

Martyn

[LandyAndy]

Do your best mate,most importantly STAY SAFE.
You and your firies are doing a great job.
Andrew