Apollo Bay Fire Brigade Stands Up

In less than 24 hours, between Sunday 2/2 and Monday 3/2, the brigade turned out 3 times in very trying conditions.

The first page was to Binns Rd at 9pm on Sunday with 18 members turning out. At that stage, there was no visible fire or smoke at Binns Rd, but smoke was noticed on Calder Ridge in an area controlled by Parks Victoria and Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV). Most of the brigade returned to station, Lieutenant Jack Pascoe liaised with FFMV for an hour or more, then Lieutenants Shayne Neal and Ben Whyte who had stayed at the site, took over. They know the area well so were able to direct crew and dozers tell them where they should create access. FFMV said their local knowledge saved hours of time and the fire spreading further. Shayne and Ben left that job at 2.30am.

The next page was at 5.22am back to Binns Rd. 17 members turned out, including Shayne and Ben. It was hot and windy with the fire on both sides of the road in inaccessible country again, needing dozers and excavators to create access. It was dangerous to attack from the ground because of the hazard of falling trees. FFMV were very stretched for crews with so many fires in the Otways. Once again, our local knowledge was invaluable in explaining how to access the fire. We set up a staging area and started door knocking around Elliot, Barham and Killala. Happily, many had already been alerted through the Fireguard Groups. Our role was to protect people and assets while waiting for daylight so FFMV could bring in an aerial attack. We also helped with them water, loaning them our Collar Tank.

The brigade returned midmorning, but 5 members volunteered to help FFMV to hand cut access trails through some of the steep bush that dozers couldn’t access. This is physically very demanding, made worse by the hot conditions.(See photo) They were Tamika Farley-Lehrer, Will Chow, Steve Ras, James Templeton and Daisy Brady who finished at 4pm, then went directly to the next callout.

The last call out was at 4.09pm to Glenaire in heavy rain and hail. 16 members turned out. Geoff Schmidt had been sent to Colac to the incident control centre from the Binns job and was there all day. Captain Dave Howell also attended two other jobs on Sunday with the Gerangamete Brigade just arriving back in the Bay for the first Binns call out. There was no sign of fire in Glenaire, so they returned to station by 6.30pm.

Nearly the entire brigade of volunteers turned out repeatedly for most of that 24 hour period. The few who didn’t were away or on call. As well as those already mentioned, our gratitude goes to Lieutenants Aaron Melrose and Murray Biddle, Firefighters Robby Forrester, Andy Birley, Troy Van Santen, Dave Kohout, Andrew Lumsden, Steve Ras, Javier Toranzos, Delaney Martin and Josh Keogh.

Thanks to Steve Ras for the photos below.