By Kath Gannaway
Healesville CFA volunteers are cleaning up after a fire at their Crowley Road fire station today – Saturday, 30 June.
CFA District 13 Operations Manager David Renkin said the brigade was alerted to smoke coming from the station at around 1pm.
He praised the response saying Healesville brigade members managed to gain entry and suppress the fire within about 15 minutes.
The fire was restricted to the workshop area, but the entire building was filled with smoke.
“It was an exceptional effort, particularly given that there was a power surge throughout the area which had knocked out power and meant they had difficulties getting the doors open.
According to Ausnet Services website a power outage at around 10.30am left 61 customers in the area around the fire station without power.
“The smoke was intense and it was very difficult to get in there without BA (breathing apparatus) to get the vehicles out,” Mr Renkin said.
The trucks and other equipment were trapped in the station as volunteers from Badger Creek, Coldstream, Yarra Glen and Bayswater BA unit assisted the Healesville members to deal with the fire and the aftermath.
Gearing up with BA, teams of firefighters secured the building, moved the trucks out and started removing and bagging equipment including members helmets, overalls and other protective clothing.
Mr Renkin was among other CFA regional officers and welfare team members who made their way to Healesville when the alarm was raised.
“There’s still a lot of cleaning up to do and we still have to have all the power checked, clean all the gear and look out for the welfare of our volunteers.
“You don’t expect to get a call to your own station,” he said.
He said while the fire was confined to the workshop and there was smoke throughout the building, the meeting room was not damaged.
While the station looks set to be out of action for the immediate future, but Mr Renkin assured Healesville residents that they were covered in terms of fire and other brigade response.
“We have taken measures to ensure that fire coverage throughout Healesville area is maintained utilising nearby brigades and we also have the Healesville satellite fire station at Chum Creek.”
He said it was too early to speculate on the cost of getting the station up and running again, or on the cause of the fire.
“We’re still investigating the cause of the fire; investigators on their way,” he said.
An update on the Ausnet Outagewebsite has given the cause of the outage at ‘overhead line damage’ and extended the estimated time for return of power for the 61 households affected at 11pm.
