Fire Brigade

The Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade wishes to advise our community that Chief Fire Officer Garry Jackson intends to step down as CFO after 43 years’ service with the brigade and 22 as the CFO. Garry will remain a valued member of our brigade to ensure a smooth handover and assist with the development of new station officers as part of the brigades succession planning.

We are also pleased to report there were no structure fires since the first of the year. However, over 90 work hours were required at several vegetation fires reflecting the dry season. These fires ranged from a callout to a controlled burn which was under control requiring no intervention, to three out-of-control burn offs. Only one of the 8 vegetation fires was accidental being the result of an overheated wheel bearing igniting the grass verge.

There were eleven calls for medical assistance, three of which involved motor vehicle crashes. There was a call for low a hanging power lines and two false alarms, one being when the contractor testing the fire station alarm system accidentally activated the siren (oops!).

One of the tools we have for fighting fires is Class A foam mixed with water and compressed air at the pump called CAFS. This is quite important when water supplies are limited as the foam/water/air solution can extend the firefighting capabilities up to three times for the same amount of water.

At the highest concentration of compressed air & foam solution to water, a heavy blanket of foam (like shaving cream) is produced which can smother flames at the seat of the fire. At lesser concentrations, the foam solution more easily penetrates the burning substance aiding in extinguishment.

At one of the rural vegetation fires, this heavy foam concentrate was used to suppress the fire for 25 minutes while waiting sufficient water to be delivered by tanker. At the other fires, a wetter and more penetrating foam solution was used to attack a deep seated fire in compressed wood chips. In the past 3 months, the Brigade has used more than 80 litres of Class A foam and over 100,000 litres of water on vegetation fires.

The use CAFS is estimated to have saved our brigade members over 10-20 hours of additional firefighting time since the start of the year alone. And 10-20 hours which we can then spend with our families or running our businesses, instead of pumping more water to do the same job. It sure is great to have good tools to do our job faster and easier!

Our Brigade is currently recruiting two or three new members. Interested persons are invited to contact any member of the Brigade or call 0800 FIRE RECRUIT.
See you at the ANZAC Parade.