Fires and floods–Central Victoria has copped it all in the past couple of weeks. Fire Brigades and the SES have been busy.
Let’s begin with the lead-up to Christmas, when there were a couple of fires that kept local fire brigades on their toes.
On Thursday 21 December, the Maldon Fire Brigade attended a night time fire where they were confronted by a remorseful resident who had decided to have a pre-Christmas clean up. The fire he had lit got away from him.
“There’s really no excuse for this,” Maldon Fire Brigade Captain Sean McCubbin said. “It’s the Fire Danger Period. Fires should not be lit at this time.”
On Friday 22 December, the Maldon, Walmer, Baringhup and Newstead brigades plus air support attended a large fire out at Shelbourne. Once the fire was under control, blacking out took some time, with the Maldon Fire Brigade arriving at the fire at about 5pm and getting home to base at 11.30pm.
And here’s a disturbing fire: between Christmas and New Year, the Maldon Fire Brigade was called to a fire in Maldon that involved a 36 volt lithium ion battery that was sitting on its charger, but was not plugged in.
“This is a fire that is quite concerning,” Sean said. “The battery was only three months old and it was sitting in a shaded position. It shouldn’t have caught fire. The CFA is conducting a thorough investigation.”
The lesson here is: whether or not they’re on charge, keep any lithium batteries away from your house, in case of spontaneous combustion!
The last call-out for 2023 involved a false alarm. “An over-exuberant resident called in a camp fire at the Butts,” Sean said. “But there was nothing to see there.”
Last week, the Castlemaine and Maldon Fire Brigades attended a call-out to the Maldon Hospital, where an electrical contractor had inadvertently drilled into the fire service pipe network in the roof area.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been called to the Hospital for an event like this,” Sean said. “It’s usually the alarm going off because the toast was burnt. There was significant water damage caused to plaster and carpet. At first we couldn’t shut the pipe off. The Castlemaine SES came to assist with the clean up. The problem could have been avoided if services had been isolated before starting work.”
A reminder from Sean regarding the two CFA information sessions that are being hosted by the Maldon Fire Brigade: despite the recent rain, the fire season isn’t over yet. “I encourage everyone to attend one of these meetings,” he said.
The first meeting is on Friday 19 January (that’s today) at the North British Mine in Parkins Reef Road car park at 6.30pm. There’s a second meeting being held at the Butts Reserve on Saturday 27 January at 9.30am.
Less rain has fallen recently in the [Tarrangower] Times readership area than further north, where extensive flooding has been experienced in Heathcote, Rochester, Goornong, Elmore and other localities.
That didn’t mean that Castlemaine SES had a quiet time; first of all they were busy preparing for the worst in local areas, and they then travelled north to provide assistance to Bendigo SES.
Hats off to our emergency services volunteers, who do an amazing job.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 19 January 2024.
