By Callum Ludwig
A number of Upper Yarra brigades were awoken early on Friday morning, 27 October, as they were paged to a fully involved shed fire in Launching Place.
Hillcrest CFA were joined at the scene by the Yellingbo Rural Fire Brigade, Hoddles Creek Fire Brigade, Seville Rural Fire Brigade, Yarra Junction Fire Brigade and Little Yarra CFA at 3am.
Hillcrest CFA member Rochelle Poulton said when crews arrived at the scene, it was very obvious the whole shed was involved.
“It was a large shed, and one of the struggles that we were faced with was water supply, just because it was in a rural area of Launching Place,” she said.
“One of the Yarra Junction members who was on the scene before us called for seven tankers to help with a water shuttle and once we were on scene, they handed over control to us.”
Supporting brigades carted the water back and forth to Hillcrest members, who went to work gaining access to the shed.
Ms Poulton said they parted and stripped into the roller door just to be able to gain access to the inside of the shed.
“Members are not to go up close to the fire unless they are wearing the correct PPC and clothing, we have what is called structure gear which allows us to get close to a structure fire without feeling the heat on our skin,” she said.
“It’s still something you have to be very careful of because we don’t actually feel the heat through the gear so it can get quite dangerous if we’re not aware of our surroundings and of just how hot something might be.”
Crew members used a grinder to gain access to the inside of the shed, also donning breathing apparatus to avoid inhaling toxic fumes or smoke. Grinders are becoming a common feature of brigade’s turnout equipment.
Ms Poulton said weather conditions were on their side.
“If it was a couple of days earlier with the wind, it would have been a big story because on upon arrival a couple of trees had started to start to catch fire but we were able to put a stop to that pretty quickly,” she said.
“The shed wasn’t too close to the resident’s house however it was pretty close to their next-door neighbour’s house so thankfully the weather was on our side in that sense and it didn’t spread far.”
Some of the shed’s contents were insured, but some of the four cars inside were not, serving as an important reminder to have all valuables insured in the event of a fire. About 100 chickens inside the shed were also killed.
Ms Poulton said it’s believed the fire started from a Reptile light globe heating up too much and causing the chook shelter to catch fire.
“It’s important to make sure you have adequate spacing, the required form of globes and for things like car batteries to make sure you have the right chargers and aren’t charging at night while you are asleep,” she said.
