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Brigade that did its best
By Michael Esposito
2nd February 2010 11:05:23 AM
Kilmore CFA captain Greg Murphy, right, with crew members Karen Folino, David Williams, Matt White, Andrew Carr and Anthony Archer. 42066
GREG Murphy has no doubt absolutely everything was done to stop the roaring, monstrous, merciless force of destruction that was the Kilmore East-Murrindindi fire.
This is something the Kilmore CFA captain stresses to point out.
Regardless of what preventative measures should or should not have been put in place before the event, when the fire started, everything was thrown at it.
“There is general recognition among this brigade that we did whatever could be done, and some might say it wasn’t enough,” Mr Murphy said. “They weren’t there.”
“Some might say ‘look at how many houses were lost and how many lives were lost’. We say ‘look at how many were saved’.
“Without these people doing what they did … the death toll and the losses would have been much bigger than they were. Take out the efforts of the fireys and that thing would still be going.”
Of all the questions surrounding the co-ordinated attack on the fire, whether communications were up to scratch, if the response was swift enough, no-one would doubt the courage of the people on the ground, risking their lives to save others.
Mr Murphy remembers the day clearly.
Officers were at the station by 8am, as they always are on a total fire ban day. Seeing the weather conditions as they were, the captain gave his troops a “coach’s briefing”, to prepare them for what could potentially be a long day.
At 11.49am, Mr Murphy received a pager call that Mt Hickey fire tower had spotted smoke near Saunders Rd and Sunday Creek Rd.
Five brigades were called to the scene.
“I saw the column of smoke and thought ‘this is a big fire’,” Mr Murphy said.
At about that point Seymour CFA assigned Mr Murphy to the role of incident controller.
He immediately ordered aircraft and another 25 trucks.
At 12.45pm another 40 trucks were ordered.
Whittlesea captain Ken Williamson said the use of resources was less than ideal due to the number of false alarms.
“We were snowed under with smoke sightings and fire calls. They were false alarms, so it was a very busy period,” Mr Williamson said.
The Whittlesea/Diamond Valley fire group received more than 150 calls that day – more than the annual turnout rate.
Mr Williamson was dispatched to Wandong when the fire jumped Saunders Rd, came out of the other end of the plantation and went for the small township.
No one in Wandong died, which Mr Murphy said was testament to the response effort.
Mr Murphy was also proud of the fact that every firefighter survived the ordeal.
“The guys in the Kilmore trucks finished 11.30pm, and every single one of them was back at 6.30 the next morning. Not because they were asked to be, they just came back, ready to go again.”
“We’re a close-knit brigade and we really look after one another, and it’s never been more evident than during and after Black Saturday. And it continues to this day.”
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