This GoPro video of an engine crew fighting fire in Australia on February 9, 2014 is fascinating. It shows the Mt. Macedon 1 crew of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) suppressing a fire near Gisborne, Victoria using a remote controlled front-mounted nozzle and firefighters on the back of the truck using two additional nozzles. An Erickson Air-Crane helicopter is also seen making several water drops. You might notice how fast the driver can back the truck up after their path on a dirt road is suddenly blocked by flames.
The crew shot about two hours of video and edited it down to six minutes of highlights.
The fire burned about 2,500 hectares (6,200 acres) and five homes at Riddells Creek and Gisborne South in what the CFA said was the biggest fire in the area in 30 years.
Like it says at the end of the video — they had a busy day.
Before you comment on the tactics, remember our comment policy, and consider that your view of the fire is like looking through a soda straw.
Andrew – that area (Gisborne South to Riddles Creek) is on the edge of Melbourne’s rapidly expanding northern urban fringe. Its unusual for hydrants to be in paddocks anywhere including there. But that hydrant was within a few metres of a main road. There could have suburban developments within a few hundred metres (even closer possibly,) with associated water infrastructure, in which case the hydrant placement might not be as unusual as it seems from the vid. Sure beats filling up from a half empty stagnant pool in some creek that isn’t running anymore.
My parents live a few km south of that fire in a place called Sunbury. Honesty I don’t know if I’d attack a grass fire from in front of the fire like that but it did seem in the vid that the wind was forcing the fire back into burnt ground. In that case the decision makes sense imo, especially knowing those paddocks usually have low grass, and there were low flame heights associated with them – I’m 1000 miles north of that area in Northern NSW, our fire conditions are very different (usually no where near as severe.)
I was visiting my family in Sunbury a year before this video was shot, and every day there were multiple grass fires in that area. Apparently its not unusual in the height of a Victorian summer. There is no doubt the fireys in that area have plenty of experience dealing with grass fires in those paddocks and know exactly what they’re doing.
cheers
I think this is a pretty interesting video. I wouldn’t mind having one of those trucks, and while I don’t know if I would try some of the things they did, it obviously works for them. I have never seen that hydrant that seemed to be in the middle of the field. Are those pretty common there?
It is also worth noting that it was about 43C that day (109F) and they were working in full PPE. At the same time the health authorities were telling people to stay indoors and take precautions to avoid heat stress.