FirePhotography.net

Just a few pics and some video of the guys from Ripley Valley and Pine Mountain doing our Level II chainsaw certificates.. Nice job!

( And, no – that tree isn’t hung up, its falling – just the fast shutter speed doesn’t show it. )

Over the weekend of 20th and 21st June the 2009 South East Region Firefighter championships were held at Limestone Park in Ipswich with the winning teams competing against other regions in the State championships to be held in a few weeks.

 
1st    Mt Tamborine
2nd    Marburg
3rd    Laidley
 
Champion Firefighter    Danny Edser
 

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Day 1   Day 2

Recently I had the opportunity to watch some live fire training at the Live Fire Campus, part of the Queensland Combined Emergency Services Academy at Whyte Island. On this day a scenario was being conducted for Station Officers undergoing a tactical management course involving a MVC at petrol station with large fuel spill + nearby gas cylinders and storage tanks. Known as Armageddon because the participants get everything thrown at them.

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Over recent years QFRS Rural Operations has reclassified brigades based upon the functions and services provided with the subsequent reclassification of specific volunteer roles. To support volunteers in these new roles it is therefore necessary to provide appropriate training programs so that volunteers are able to attain the knowledge and skills necessary to safely and effectively undertake their chosen brigade role. As such a new volunteer learning & development framework has been established which will be the platform for training for the RFS from 2008 and beyond.

A key component of the new framework is that it better aligns training courses to RFS roles, allowing volunteers a greater capacity to develop knowledge & skills necessary to perform their role within the brigade. This provides structured career paths which allows volunteers to identify the knowledge & skills necessary to advance from recruit through to first officer. The framework will cover the nearly 40,000 RFS volunteers across Queensland, including both active firefighters and support roles.

To go along with the new development framework and volunteer roles is the recruitment campaign “Are You Ready” and the RFS was kind enough to ask me to take some shots of the new member & crew leader training courses which may be suitable for brochures, posters etc. So it was back out to Boonah for new members training course and then up to Maleny for crew leaders, although not a lot to work with as it’s mostly looking at documents, maps, etc in a classroom.

The rural fire service has just recently developed a new standardised training package for new members. The new member training package is an intensive two day course which aims to give all firefighters the same base level of core competencies which contribute to the FM1 certification. I believe all existing firefighters who have not yet finished their FM1 are being run through the course, which includes myself. Luckily I managed to get a spot the first weekend it was on. Given it had not been done at all before and we were the guinea pigs I though the weekend was planned and executed very professionally and all the students learned a lot, even people who have been with the brigade for a number of years still walked away with something they didn’t know previously.

The training package can only be described as very intensive. It is essentially split into theory and practical modules with breaks in between for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. The weekend began with assembly and briefing at 0700 hrs sharp on the Saturday morning at Boonah, luckily that’s not too far from Ripley but for some brigades such as Tamborine and Bonogin Valley they are probably looking at least a 1.5 hour drive to get there plus preparing vehicles at the station before the drive so that can be quite an early start for some. After the briefing and paperwork type things training starts at 0800 and I think we were finished in the classroom at about 2130 hrs in the evening. So a very long day. Then off to shower and prepare bunks followed by general socialising until about midnight when most people turned in.

It was nice to sit down and chat with everyone at the end of the day and see them in a different light. I should have mentioned during the training we were also deliberately split up from other members in our own brigade to form more inter-brigade relationships which will assist in fluid teamwork on a reasonable sized fireground.

Sunday we were all up by about 0600, showered and breakfast by 0700, back into the classroom at 0715. Fortunately Sunday isn’t quite as long, which is probably good as I think we were all starting to glaze over, especially those who made a visit to the local pub for some goodies the previous evening! We were finished by about 1600 which made for a reasonable arrival at home and at least a couple of hours to spend with the family.

Some of the subjects that were covered;

• Respond to Wildfire
• Work in a Team
• Prevent Injury
• Hazardous Workplace
• Dead Man Zone
• Fire Extinguishers
• Bushfire Prepared Communities
• SMEACS (Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration, Control & Communications, Safety)
• LCES (Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes, Safety Zones)
• Structural Protection in the iZone
• Fire Extinguishers
• Operate Communications Systems & Equipment
• Fire Simulator Trailer
• Burn Over Exercises

All in all a very good weekend.

Sound like something you may be interested in?

Perhaps consider joining the RFS ?