AS FIRES continue to devastate large areas of Australia, Rochester’s volunteer firefighters have bolstered the ranks battling desperately to save towns and properties – and lives.
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Three of Rochester’s finest returned last week after being flown into Victoria’s high country as part of a multi-unit taskforce charged with protecting assets.
Some of the most intense fronts there are inaccessible but the threat of breakout depending on wind, temperature and ember attacks has placed enormous demands on the mostly volunteer army of firefighters trying to hold the line.
Rochester CFA second lieutenant (and Northern Campaspe Group officer) Luke Weymouth has just returned from Ensay with station colleagues Vaughan Thomas and Christian Barkby.
The trio had answered a call for more volunteers as the fires across Gippsland continued to spread out of control.
Luke, who has been with Rochester CFA for the past decade and has seen his fair share of bad blazes – including Black Saturday – said the current fires were “right up there” on the disaster scale.
“We were flown into Hotham and assigned to help cover Ensay in Victoria’s High Country,” Luke said.
“We were deployed there for four days and conditions were pretty warm, although we started off with a couple of slow days, working with the community and advising them on safety and protecting assets if the fire did come,” he said.
“They were burning around the town in areas where it wasn’t safe or practical to send people in but as we have seen with these fires, defending against ember attack has become crucial.”
And inevitably that’s what happened in the sector the Rochester team was covering, and as they battled through the Monday night they were able to save some structures.
The Rochester boys were part of a strike team which typically was five trucks and a command vehicle.
Luke said they were kept together within that team, which made sense because they were all familiar working with each other.
“From there we might be tasked separately but we were always together,” Luke added.
Some of the things the Rochester team saw were stark evidence of the fluid danger of the situation.
Luke said they included caches of food and tents in some of the smaller towns in their sector, such as Tambo Crossing, which was on red alert as an area that could be quickly cut off by the fire.
“The caches were to support firefighters who could not be safely extracted, so they would have food to eat and tents to sleep in if necessary,” Luke said.
And if the fires were not bad enough, Luke said they also had to deal with a lightning event while deployed.
“The whole situation was incredibly fluid and there is a lot of work ahead for a lot of people – I know Echuca sent off eight more people on Thursday afternoon and they were going to take over from us.”
Luke said there was also good support for the men when they came home.
“The CFA has a peer support program in place, which includes individual phone calls to have a chat about what you did, what you saw and how you were feeling now you are back home – and there are other programs in place if needed. It is a very good system.”
Luke said all the CFA volunteers appreciated the support from their employers.
This was his first deployment this season and he said Rochester volunteers used a combination of employer support and annual leave to fill seats on fire trucks at the front.
“Some also sacrifice work days at their own expense; that is the level of commitment and support they bring to the job.”
For Rochester CFA veteran Vaughan Thomas, who has been part of the brigade here for 54 years (and is frequently referred to as grandpa), the Gippsland deployment was his second this season, after spending a week in NSW around Singleton and Port Macquarie.
Like Luke he said the fires were pretty bad and their Tuesday had been “really warm” work after one of the fronts broke out.
“We are happy to help out in these areas because we know what the locals are going through – and I was assigned to drive one of the trucks while we were in Gippsland,” Vaughan said.
“But I don’t think I will be signing up for any more in the near future because people around here are starting to worry a little about local conditions,” he explained.
“A lot of our little towns are surrounded by acres and acres of dry grass, trees and paddocks so I think now is a good time for us all to be a little closer to home.”
For Christian Barkby, a five-year member of the local brigade, the deployment was an eye-opening first for him.
He had tried previously to go join crews headed interstate but work had got in the way.
‘‘I had never seen anything like the fires we fronted in and around Ensay but I have to say after the initial look your training really starts to kick in,’’ Christian said.
‘‘You do a lot of training and sometimes you think you might be doing a couple of things you’ll never need — well you will, and we did,’’ he said.
‘‘But once you start it all comes flooding back, you remember all the little details and it works.
‘‘It was also such a bonus to have someone with Vaughan’s experience and calmness in the truck with us made a huge difference.
‘‘It was a challenge but I think we did our job, I got to meet a lot of new people and I learnt so much in such a short time.
‘‘If I could get it to line up with work I would certainly put my hand up again.’’