The month of April usually means things start to get a bit quieter for RFS crews, but April 2018 was certainly different.

Briefly – here’s how our month went.

Sat 07.04:   Joadja HR . Brett ,Terry and Kellie spent the day lighting up control lines and then putting out spot fires

Sun 08.04:  Joadja HR . Mark, Claudia, Mary and Greg spent the day doing the same as above

Sat 14.04:   Joadja HR.  Brett and Matt  spent the day blacking out and patrolling sectors of the fireground

Sat 14.04:  Holsworthy.   Brett, Chris, Claudia and Lindsay left the shed at 1900 before meeting Kellie at the staging area at Pheasants Nest. 2 strike teams each of 4 trucks then left before meeting up again at Moorebank Sports Club. After the usual delays in tasking we proceeded under lights and sirens to Alfods Point. We set up hydrants, ran out hoses and located alternative water sources such as swimming pools, where we set up a portable pump, and spent a number of hours on property protection. The fire was visible from our location with some very mild ember attack, nothing which started spot fires though. Around 0300 we were redeployed to the Western side of Heathcoate road where we commenced back burning operations. The fuel was incredibly dry and by 0730 a single driptorch spot resulted in 5m flame height in less than 5 minutes. We continued performing this task until around 1000 when we were relieved. On the way out we received a muffin the first RFS supplied food in 15 hours. After a couple of bacon and egg roles at Moorebank the Cat 1 arrived back at Canyonleigh Station at 1300 on the Sunday. We elected not to send crews on the following days as we were pretty tired and the risk, apart from Sunday, wasn’t that great.

Thank you to everyone who made themselves available. While Canyonleigh was not under threat the experience gained and lessons learnt are going to be invaluable in the future. Oh …. and we weren’t responsible for the burning dunnies!