Nov2013_Samsonvale RFB News

Hi all!  It’s been a long time since my last report for the Samsonvale Rural Fire Brigade.  I have been busier than Scotty Stewart in front of his mirror in the morning (no I’ve been slack).

My lovely wife has just read the first line of my report and has just informed me that I should leave the first officer of Dayboro RFB alone and be serious!!  Ok – down to serious business.

I was on the roof of my shed this afternoon (in the lovely rain) cleaning out my gutters, thinking of those poor buggers down around Sydney way, when I got  to thinking, “Here I am in the last couple of reports that I have done telling people what to do around the house to prepare themselves for the fire season, only to be thinking to myself that the gutters that I am finally cleaning out today probably should have been done about six months ago.”  

We all find that we are so busy these days and jobs that we should do around the house or property never seem to get done.  

Things that we should be on top of around the place are:

1.  Cleaning out your gutters 

2.  Reducing debris from around your house 

3.  Hazard reduction 

4.  Ensuring fire breaks are maintained 

5.  Portable pumps are serviced and operational 

6.  Have an emergency plan in place

You can go to the RFS website at ruralfire.qld.gov.au  for additional information. 

 

Another issue that came to my attention recently is the lack of knowledge that some land holders have about their duty of care in regards to fire on their property.  I was called by a lady concerned about what appeared to be a house fire.  Upon investigation it was an unpermitted burn.  Consequently the ambulance and fire brigades were called out – in total ten emergency service personnel were called out on site.  This turned out to be waste of valuable time and resources, all of which could have been avoided if a permit had been obtained and Fire Com notified.  Once again, information is easily accessible either at ruralfire.qld.gov.au  or via your local brigade or fire warden .

On a different note I would like to congratulate Kevin Taylor and Paul Compton on receiving life memberships.  Both of these senior fire fighters are an invaluable resource within our brigade.  In future reports I’m going to steal an idea from Dayboro RFB and start doing member profiles as of the next  Grapevine .

Trevor Brown 

SVRFB