Well, Christmas came and went with only a couple of call outs. A few small MVA's, and small fires
The brigade would like to welome 4 new members, Terry Etherington, Aidan Daly, Ben Paine, and Cameron Paine. Also, welcome back to Mannie Borg, who has moved back to the district after living in Sydney for a few years.
Several members have completed courses recently. Ray Ward and Peter Moore have completed BF, and are eagerly awaiting their first call out!
It has been pretty quiet lately, with the exception of a week of intense activity, which marked the start of the 'silly season'. We had several fires running in the district, with the brigade being regularly called out.
We have had two new members join our brigade. Welcome to Peter Moore, and Alan Stone. Alan is transferring to our brigade from Coopernook in the Manning
Several of our members have completed courses recently. Jonothan Ward has completed BF, Eric Witchard has completed Crew Leader Supervision, Ben Simon and Sarah Cass have recertified in Senior First Aid, and Ben Simon has completed Rural Fire Driving.
The Brigade has spent a lot of time recently preparing the station for the Official Extension Opening on the 28th of April. Assistant Commisioner Mark Crosweller, Local MP Rob Oakshott, Hastings Deputy Mayor Bob Sharpham, and local salaried staff were just some of the dignitaries invited.
We have had a few new members arrive recently. Welcome to Doug Budge, Darrell Pascoe, Ray and Jono Ward. Doug has a background in NSWFB and other fire services, Darrell has transferred from the Blue Mountains area, and Ray and Jono are local residents. Welcome guys!
Several of our members have completed training courses recently. Congrats to Bethany Cook (Village Firefighter), Eric Witchard (Crew Leader Wildfire and Crew Leader Village), Sarah Cass (Crew Leader Village) and Ben Simon (Crew Leader Village).
Onto incidents. Summer saw a few large fires that our brigade has been involved in. We were the first RFS appliance on scene at a fire in the Pembroke State Forest. This fire grew very rapidly, and was soon declared a Section 44. This saw our brigade having several different crews at this S44.
The day of the official opening didn't look promising, with constant showers. But when the time came for the offical Flag Raising, the sun came out and the rain blew away! See the photo gallery for photos from this day.
Another S44 that our brigade was involved in was the S44 declared at Harrington, in the Taree district. This S44 found our crew providing fire protection to the helicopters and fuel trucks, as the staging ground was not far from the fire front.
We also had several incidents occur very close together in an old vineyard. One of these fires really took off when a southerly change hit just as our first truck arrived on scene. Needless to say, we were moving very quickly to stop the spread of this fire!
It has been a pretty quiet last new months, with only a few callouts. The brigade was busy fundraising on the October Long Weekend, at the Donut, and were very pleased with the result.
We would like to welcome our newest member, Mathieu Mitchell, to the brigade. Matt has recently passed Basic Firefighter, and was christened with a small fire in our area - something to whet his appetite on! Congratulations to Kim Cass and Ben Simon for completing Advanced Firefighter. On another note, we would like to wish Kim Cass luck with her new venture, as a firefighter in the Australan Defence Force. Good luck Kim! As we approach summer, the brigade is busily preparing itself for what promises to be a busy summer. At the moment of writing this, the brigade has a crew on standby ready to head to the Sydney area to assist the crew down there in anticipation of the extreme weather and fires expected this weekend. Several of our members have recieved National Medals at a recent medal presentation, along with long service badges. Congrats to Chris van-der-Ley, Mat van-der-ley, Gwenda van-der-Ley, Darren van-der-Ley and Kylie van-der-Ley. The brigade also attended Lorne Rural Fire Brigades successful 50th Anniversary. Congrats Lorne on a great achievement!Once again, the Sancrox RFB participated in the NSW RFS Open Day, and had around 15 people arrive to 'check out' the station, some as far away as Sydney! Thanks to all those who dropped by, and we hope that you enjoyed your experience!
The brigade had a fairly quiet summer, with no major bushfires in the area. We had crews out over New Years putting in a back burn in the Kippara State Forest, as well as responding to a number of smaller incidents. There have been the usual number of MVA's, but fortunately, no fatalities.
We have also had several members gain new qualifications. Congratulations to Ben Stevensen and Glenn Hilton in gaining Village Firefighter and Crosscut Chainsaw, Glenn Hilton in gaining Advanced Firefighter, Gwenda van-der-Ley for completing the Traffic Controller course, Bethany Cook and Loretta Gregory for completing Basic Firefighter, Ben Simon and Kim Cass for completing Compressed Air Breathing Apparatus (CABA) and Ben Simon for gaining his Medium Rigid vehicle license.
Sancrox Thrumster RFB will be participating in the state wide open day. We are planning several
activities, including demonstrations to the public, community education, a free sausage sizzle, and much more!
The station will be open from 10 am to 4 pm, so come along and support your local volunteer brigade!
Thank heavens the last fire season was a relatively quiet one! But unfortunately, the brigade attended quite a few MVA's in the recent months, which also included 1 fatality. The fatalty was the 8th on the Pacific Highway between Kew and Coffs Harbour in a period of two weeks.
The brigade has been responding to quite a few reports of bush alight, a few of which were burn offs that had escaped the boundary.We have also been sent to various other incidents, including a structure fire (caravan alight), a fire at the Cairncross rubbish tip (which involved several trucks and the bulk water carrier), and even a call to remove a cow stuck in a mud bog!!
We have had several members attend training courses, including Sarah Cass who now has Advanced Firefighter, Kim cass who now has Village Firefighter, and Ben Stevenson and Sandie Bennett who are now Bush Firefighters. Well done guys!
Other news in the district is that three brigades have recieved new Cat 1's. King Creek, Lake Cathie and Camden Haven are having a great time putting the new trucks through their paces. Lake Cathie has also moved into a new station, closer to the CBD of Lake Cathie.
On December 11th an Open Day was held at the new Hastings Fire Control Centre. Click here to go to the page, which includes heaps of excellent photos!
Been pretty quiet lately. Substantial rainfall has kept the risk of fires relatively low. A few MVA's though, one of which was in the pouring rain! The brigade was also involved in a fund raiser with Qantas for kids from Ronald McDonald House and kids from the local hospital. Other brigades such as Lake Innes, North Shore and Lake Cathie were also helping out for the day. A recent run in hot weather has seen the fire danger readings sky rocket, with a record of 42.4 degrees C on Wednesday the 1/12/04 - Welcome to Summer!! That same day our Cat 1 was requested to send a crew north to Stuarts Point (North of South West Rocks) to assist in a large blaze that was out of control. The ironic thing is the next day, the 2nd of December, was overcast and was raining most of the day.
The last few months have been pretty queiet for the brigade. We have had a few call outs to permit burns, smoke sightings, and a few car accidents. Work on the station improvements has been going forward in leaps and bounds, such as getting the amentities are completed and the grassed area at the rear of the station levelled and seeded with grass.
The Hastings Fire Control Centre has created a new website which is well worth a look! The link can be found on the links page.
We also ran another fund raiser in the October long weekend, which was very successful! Thankyou to all those members who gave up their time to help with this!
Generally, winter is the quiet time for some brigades. But over the state, the lack of rainfall has made this winter extremely dry, and many people looking at summer hoping that the fire season wont be 'one of those' seasons. Sancrox has been quieter than normal, but still active, with several fires and car accidents, some of which unfortunately resulted in fatalities.
The station extensions are coming along in leaps and bounds, with the car park and toilet areas almost finished. For more info, check out the Station page on the left.
Also, the new Fire Control Centre has been finished in Wauchope, and this centre now houses the FCC, Headquarters Brigade, including the Bulk Water Tanker and Hastings Catering, and also the Wauchope SES Unit
A big Thankyou to the Rural Fire Service Association who recently gave us permission to upload to their web server. Stay tuned for more updates!
Recently the brigade wrote to Country Energy to request the donation of a new pole for the purposes of drying hoses, as the existing pole was not long enough, and had to hang the hoses on an angle. Much to our delight, Country Energy were more than happy to help out the brigade, and donated (and erected!) a new hose hanging pole, which stands 18 metres above ground! Country Energy were also kind enough to attach a cross arm on to the pole.
The brigade would like to offer a big THANKYOU! to Country Energy for donating this pole, and also to Adrian Burke, who came down on the following Saturday to climb the pole and attach the pullies and new ropes. For more pics, please check in the gallery in Other Pics!
For two days over the Australia Day long weekend the brigade was busy fundraising
at the Highway Service Centre not far from the station. On both days that the brigade was fundraising several sizable downpours
of rain came through - but none the less, the members were still collecting donations in the pouring rain! Unfortunately, the
thunderstorm that hit on Sunday the 25th caused a MVA nearby, so several of the brigade members raced to the station to get
in the truck in response to the pager call.
The photo below shows two of the brigade members, Sam and Dave, busy collecting donations.
The brigade would like to thank all the members who gave up their time on this long weekend to help fund raise, and to
say a big 'Thank You!' to all the people who kindly donated.
Over the last few years, the christmas period has been a very busy time for the Rural Fire Service. The Canberra fires over the 2002/2003 New Year period spring to mind all too easily. But luckily, this year was a lot more peaceful. The brigade was called out Christmas Eve to a grass fire, and the next call out after this was a MVA on New Years Day, which was followed by a night of cleaning up damage from a freak electrical storm on the 7th of January. The brigade has since commenced this years training schedule, starting on the 1st, 3rd and last Wednesday nights of the month, starting at 7pm. All are welcome!
Date Posted: 12th January 2004Recently over the past few weeks there were several major fires running in the Hastings Rural Fire District. These included the fires at Red Hill, near Telegraph Point, Bellangary, Lorne, Comboyne, and Pappinbarra. Sancrox RFB responded to many of these fires, and often more than once. Some days saw crews out in the field for upwards of 10 hours. Often members were out several days running to attend these fires. These fires culminated into the declaration of a Section 44 for the Hastings District, and just as it was starting to look really bad, we were fortunate enough to recieve some rain in the area. This rain helped slow the fires down so that they could be contained by volunteers.
Date Posted: 23rd October 2003On the 31st of August 2003, the Hastings Rural Fire Service, along with the Uniting Church, held the annual Blessing of the Fleet. The service started approximately 2 pm, and lasted for a few hours, finishing with an afternoon tea which provided an excellent chance to catch up with friends from other brigades.
Reverend Stephen Robinson conducted the service, which included an excellent slideshow of the Rural Fire Service. Also, the Rural Fire Service Chaplain, Rev. Ron Anderson, was also in attendance and gave a heart warming speech to all assembled.
Once the service was over, all of the firefighters gathered outside by their vehicles waiting for the Reverand's to Bless the Fleet. There were members in attendance from various brigades, such as Sancrox, North Shore, Huntingdon, Headquarters, Lake Cathie, and various others. The Hastings Bulk Water tanker and Hastings Catering Unit were also in attendance.