This summer we have seen a number of Extreme Fire Days (the latest last weekend!). It has meant that our local CFA Fire Brigade volunteers have been on high alert for many weeks, have been called out for a substantial number of small fires and have spent many days away from home helping other brigades at big fires in the Little Desert and The Grampians.
Daylesford Brigade Captain, Glenn Webster, says there is an additional potential overarching risk that firefighters confront in the local area when they attend a fire. He has identified that on a number of rural properties around Hepburn Shire there are “old bombs” – old cars, trucks, tractors, buses which no longer work. Their owners have parked (abandoned) them on their properties in the long grass and bush. They are no longer serviceable, but the owners for whatever reason – sentimental, financial, laziness – have left them derelict and rusting away.
But more than an eyesore, these unusable products of our consumerist society have become a hazard for our firefighters. They are “Fire Bombs”. When a grass or bushfire reaches them, the flammable detritus in them bursts into flames. Many of them still have fuel in them. They all have flammable lubricants. There are rubber and plastic parts. Some even have drums of toxic fuel substances around them. When alight, they give off clouds of highly toxic smoke and fumes and can burn fiercely for hours.
When called out to a fire, Captain Webster says firefighters have no knowledge of whether one or more of these “Fire Bombs” is involved. They are often hidden by long grass or bush, and the first the firefighters are aware of their presence is when they see thick black smoke.
Our firefighters are trained to combat these types of fires. They do so with a comprehensive kit of personal protective equipment (masks, breathing apparatus, special clothing) to protect them from the toxic effects of the flames, fumes and smoke. That is not the gear that they wear to ordinary grass and bushfires. When they come across one of these “Fire Bombs” in the course of fighting a routine fire their health is placed in grave jeopardy.
The Daylesford CFA Captain has already identified some properties as “no-go” areas because of the potential “Fire Bombs” on them.
So, what is being done about this hazard to our volunteers? What can be done?
First, property owners owe it to the firefighters and to the safety of the rest of their community, to get rid of these dangerous and useless items.
And the authorities need to find a way to enforce powers to make them do it or to do it for them!
The safety of our volunteer firefighters demands it!
