WHEN Adam Powell returned to Yarra Glen fire station sometime during the night of Saturday 7 February, he showed why at just 16 he was entitled to be on a fire truck battling the worst fires in Victoria’s history.
Suffering from the effects of smoke, feeling crook and with a blinding headache, he made the decision to “sit it out”.
“After being out at Chum Creek and all the other areas where we were starting to fight flames, I’d been sucking in smoke … being a bit green, being a bit nervous, I felt really ill, right in the guts,” he said.
“I wanted to keep going because I knew how bad it was out there … I wanted to help the blokes on the trucks but I knew if they asked for back up, asked me to help out, I might not have been able to do it.
“I might have been letting the team down. I had to make that decision.”
At the time Adam had just completed a year of CFA training with Wesburn-Millgrove Fire Brigade and, just a few weeks short of his 17th birthday, was in his first week back at Upper Yarra Secondary College for his final VCE year.
Afterwards there was none of the bravado you might expect from someone of his age in making that decision. It was about the team and putting your mates first.
Adam followed in his father Barry’s footsteps in joining the CFA and the genetics have proved to be a powerful influence. He loves it and is good at what he does.
As happened with other brigades in the region, Wesburn-Millgrove volunteers were briefed on the fire danger situation on the Friday night.
“They went through the dangers of what they were expecting on the Saturday including winds up to 120 knots, which meant there would be minimal aircraft support,” Adam said.
The father and son were up at 6am the next morning and were keen to get to the station in case the fires, which were seen as an inevitable, started early.
“Waking up and going outside you could feel the hot wind on your face and could tell it was going to be a bad day,” Adam said.
“I was pretty keen to get involved. They said the night before it was going to one of the worst days they’d ever had.
“I didn’t feel scared but I was wary about the day coming up.”
By around lunchtime from Millgrove they could see mountains of smoke covering the entire valley.
It was 4pm before Adam joined the Warburton tanker as part of Strike Team 1394 and was despatched to Coldstream.
They were one of the last crews called out and after checking in at the staging area at Wandin they headed down the Warburton Highway.
He recalls either the strike team leader or a group officer offering some sage but, for a 16-year-old, daunting advice.
“He made a petty clear statement … was pretty enthusiastic about no-one dying on his shift,” Adam said.
“I’d never thought of that possibility and I remember thinking ‘Jeez, I didn’t think it was that bad’,” he added with teenage candour.
“Being a new, green recruit I thought we’d just get out there and fight some fires but it was a completely different experience.
Adam had two very experienced firefighters on his truck.
“I was asking a lot of questions; what is the procedure as soon as we get there and just going over things,” he said.
That teaming up of recruits and experienced firefighters is well thought out according to dad Barry who said his natural concerns for Adam were tempered by his knowledge that he was in good hands.
Barry said: “Before he went out on the day our captain, Paul Burke, asked me if I was all right that he went out with the Warburton crew.
“I’d trained with a couple of the Warburton firefighters and was as good as gold with it … I don’t think you could have got a better crew.”
Adam had the same reassurance about his dad who was with another Wesburn-Millgrove crew.
On the Saturday night he saw him for about five minutes at Healesville fire station but didn’t get to speak to him.
“He wished me good luck and went back out,” Adam recalled.
“I wasn’t really worried; I knew dad was with very experienced blokes and he’s not a dumb bloke … he’s switched on, knows what he’s doing.”
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