The Little Yarra CFA brigade were “beyond excited” after it upgraded its fleet with a new 2009 tanker passed down from the Chirnside CFA.
The tanker replaced the old, yet much loved Alice, a 30-year-old tanker which had crank windows and no air-conditioning yet was loved dearly by the brigade.
Little Yarra CFA captain Peter Cookson said though the brigade was sad to see Alice go, the new tanker was a great addition to the brigade.
“It’s really sad to see Alice go, but we’re just so excited about it,” Mr Cookson said.
“It’s a great looking truck too. Although it’s a 15 year old truck, they’ve actually put all the brand new stickers on it… it really makes it look like a younger truck.”
The new tanker was dubbed a “major upgrade” by the brigade, as it had a number of new features which would significantly boost the brigade’s firefighting capability.
Boasting a 2350 litre water tank, a crew cab and built-in roll over and burn over protection, it’s a big jump when compared to the 30 year old Alice.
The tanker’s crew cab meant five firefighters could now travel inside the vehicle as opposed to having two in the front and three exposed out back.
It’s crucial for the three other firefighters’ safety, as with Alice, all firefighters had if threatened by fire while in the back of the truck was some foil blankets.
On top of that, the new tanker had built in roll over and burn over protection which would greatly improve safety of the firefighters.
“We’ve got two and a half thousand litres on the truck, but we only have used 2000 litres and we saved that last 500 litres for our protection. If we need it, we can turn the crew protection on to save ourselves,” Mr Cookson said.
The Facebook post announcing Little Yarra CFA’s new tanker had just under 185 likes at the time of publication.
Mr Cookson said he was glad to see more community engagement with a smaller brigade like Little Yarra.
“For a long time at Little Yarra, we were there, but not a lot was happening. I became captain a year ago and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get us out there, I’ve got to get us seen and heard by the community.’”
He said showing off the Little Yarra CFA’s new truck would also instill reassurance in the community.
“They like to see that because they know we’re going to be probably at their house sometime in the middle of the night putting out a burn off out of control. Or sometimes we’ve had clothes dryers catch fire, so they love seeing that we’ve got up-to-date stuff and are going to really look after them.”
