Re: Lost A Good One

dechucka wrote:
"nitespark" <nitespark@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:64UKj.47723$QC.4123@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OK thanks for the clarification.
In the US, the systems are known as SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus)....same as SCUBA without the "U".

Guess its an Ozzi thing but it sounds to me that if paid firefighters are known as "proper", the volunteers would be "improper".


Bit of an "in" joke between the "townies" and us

Understand. There is sometimes a bit of friction between the volunteer and career firefighters around here (sometimes). In years past, many of the volunteers were career guys who answered calls in their off time. Then the "Fair Labor and Standards Act" was passed which stipulated if a worker turned in anything over 171 hours, he/she must be compensated for it, even if they were volunteering on their own free time. This made an even bigger divide between the career and volunteers.



I spent 27 years in the volunteer fire service and retired as Asst Chief of my department. We went through virtually the same training as the paid (known as "career" firefighters).


Congratulations, that is great service.

Thank you. I still stop by the station every once in awhile. They keep trying to give me turn out gear and a radio to come back active.


Here we have 3 types of fireman :- Career who are full time, Retained who are available on call and get paid for being on call and must attend when called who receive the same training as career officers ( mainly found in the larger villages ) and the RFS who are volunteers; training for us can vary from Bush/Grasslands firefighting training ( any building fire is fought defensively ie from the outside ) to Village Firefighting and CABA training where structure fires can be fought offensively. Plus there is all type of leader training, specialist aviation training etc. Probably when a RFS member has done all possible training he is close to NSW Fire Service standards except in the area of Hazmat ( Hazmat is the proper fire-fighters job and we will call them anytime we suspect such a situation). The RFS Brigades can vary form a group of people with trailer mounted pumps who just put out grass fires among the immediate community ( mainly Western NSW ) to Brigades like mine who have village protection, forest protection responsibilities and have a section of Highway that we respond to calls on and go to out of area when we can. When it comes to my village there is probably not a great hope if a structure fire takes hold, we don't have town water so once our 4400 l of water is put on, 3-4 min with the big hoses and good pressure, we are praying the next crew turn up as it is back to the station for refill if we can't draught from another water source



Interesting. We have a "combination" department. Career and volunteer. If the call comes in, whoever is covering duty is expected to respond and deal with it in the same way. If it is a structure fire, we go offensive or defensive at the direction of the OIC (Officer In Charge). We have a pretty good water system around here. Most hydrants supply 500-1000gpm and our trucks are equipped with 5" hose which amounts to basically an above ground water main. Occasionally, we have to truck water in to a scene. We will set up a tanker relay operation in that situation. We will set up "drop tanks" in those situations. The attack engine will draft water from the tank using the hard suction hose, as though it were parked next to a lake or pond or river. We will then run supply hoses 200-300 ft from the drop tank so trucks can pull up next to them and pump their water into the drop tank and return to the water source if necessary. The drop tanks will hold 2000-3000 gallons of water depending on size. If you get a good relay going, your attack engine will never run out of water.

We will go offensive in the fire attack if the structural integrity looks OK. If the roof looks weak or there is heavy involvement in the attic area, we go defensive from the outside. If it looks like its a "room and contents" fire, we will often make an interior attack on that.

The station I was with has two engines (1500gpm) and 1000 gallon tanker with a 1000 gpm pump, and 100+ft aerial ladder with a 1250gpm pump, a 4WD brush truck with 250 gallon tank and a 250gpm pump. We also have a mobile command post and an SUV as a car to run errands.



As I RFS brigades with such responsibilities are now being equipped.

Good bit of forest smoke is good for your lungs well until the flames turn blue/green/purple because some *** has dumped a whole lot of farm chemical or thinners etc in the bush



A few years ago, I was at a structure fire where we were providing mutual aid to a fire company on the north side of the county. Within 10 minutes the OIC had gone "defensive". The guys on my team and myself were working an attack line on the back side of the house. I remember we were on this deck outside what used to be the kitchen area. The interior floor had already collapsed into the basement. I opened the line up with a semi-fog pattern and shot it into the basement. The fire darkened down so I shut my line down to evaluate. Suddenly the fire blew back up in my face. I had full protective gear on so it didn't hurt me but it did surprise me. I then poured the water on....probably 1000 or more gallons. Again, the fire returned but in strange greenish blue colors.

The people that lived there were pretty closed mouth about what all they had in there and didn't want to talk to us. There HAD to have been some unusual accelerants involved for the fire to spread that quickly and be that hard to extinguish.
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