Firefighting crew training hones skills, teamwork

Around 75 Rural Fire Brigade volunteers from across the region participated in joint training exercises on the weekend to hone their skills and get to know neighbouring crews.

“The training day involved bringing together the 11 brigades within the Maroochy South group, as many crew as we can get from those brigades,” said Nigel Kemp, Group Officer of Maroochy South.

“It’s a day of working with each other, a team building exercise, learning what your neighbouring brigade can do, who the people are in those brigades, what the trucks are capable of doing, and we had a good day and a bit of fun doing it. It’s tasks we would do daily on the fire ground, just in a less-pressure, less-intense, friendlier environment. It gives you time to think about what you’re doing rather than when you’re on the fire ground when the pressure is on.”

The exercises included: reversing a fire truck blindfolded while being guided only by a colleague’s radioed directions, pumping water from a dam to refill the fire truck, towing a bogged truck, using hoes to dig a small fire break, four wheel driving along rugged bush tracks, fun team-building activities, all combined with practiced radio communications with Incident Control.

The exercises were hosted by Kureelpa Rural Fire Brigade. Crews that attended were from Bli Bli, Eudlo, Ilkley, Kiel Mountain, Kureelpa, Mapleton, Montville, Obi Obi, and Palmwoods.Mr Kemp has noted that high rainfall over recent years will potentially lead to high fuel loads on Sunshine Coast bushland areas, so crews need to be extra vigilant for upcoming fire seasons.

“Thanks to events like this, when we see a neighbouring truck pull up beside us at a major fire event, we know who they are, what they can do, we know what their truck can do. We all get to work together and learn each other’s talents and capabilities, so we know that when the fire season ramps up, we’re right to go.”