General News
8 December, 2022
New CFA equipment used twice in one week
Gearing up for disasters and accidents, the Carisbrook CFA recently received game-changing equipment after becoming the beneficiary of a national grant. As part of the National Australia Bank Foundation Community Grants program, created to help...
Gearing up for disasters and accidents, the Carisbrook CFA recently received game-changing equipment after becoming the beneficiary of a national grant.
As part of the National Australia Bank Foundation Community Grants program, created to help communities better manage natural disasters, the CFA unit in Carisbrook was given $10,000, used towards equipping the firetruck with breathing apparatuses (BA).
These BAs have already proved their worth, assisting the crew in two incidents — the chemical leak at Sutton Tools in Maryborough and a house fire in Majorca — with the latter only possible to subdue because of the BA according to Carisbrook Fire Brigade Captain Ian Boucher.
“We’ve only had the apparatus on the truck for about a week. And we’ve used it twice already,” he said.
“We were able to save 60 percent of the house [in Majorca] because we were able to access the house, whereas before, we wouldn’t have been able to access the house without the breathing apparatus.
“We were lucky to have the equipment otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do an internal attack on the house, and we wouldn’t have been able to save what we did.”
Being awarded the NAB grant has turned things around for the brigade — after previous attempts to secure funding.
“I think it’s an amazing effort for abrigadelikeoursoranybrigadeat the moment to try and raise funds,” Captain Boucher said.
“We’ve sort of tossed up the idea of tryingtofundraise.Andwethought we couldn’t get $10,000 ourselves.
“Purchasing equipment has just been nearly impossible, especially after the flooding emergencies and everything we’ve had going on in the last six months. The communities are just worn out.
“So being able to gain money from an organisation like the NAB, to not only benefit the Carisbrook community but the whole of Victoria, because these can be used anywhere in the state, it’s just amazing.”
There are now a range of measures the brigade can take after installing the apparatus and for Carisbrook Fire Brigade First Lieutenant Jamie Herd, that makes all the difference.
“It just gives us options to do a greater range of things — those remote rural structure fires, we can now attack them with [the apparatus] because we can get to the seat of the fire. Whereas before, we used to have to stand outside and wait,” he said.
“And sometimes you go to fires or remotestructuresthatneedwater, but we only had BA on the smaller
vehicle.Well,nowwecanjusttake this and still access water.
“It just gives us more options to help serve the community.”
First Lieutenant Herd recalls the Majorca house fire and said he was glad they had the equipment to salvage a major portion of the property.
“When we went to the gate, we could see the smoke boiling up inside the whole house. It was like a scene out of a movie but we had the gear there and we thought we can now do something, we can do something straight away,” he said.
NAB’s grant is targeted towards achieving similar outcomes for all communities — it is part of the NAB Ready Together initiative. So far, the foundation has awarded grants to more than 200 regional and local community groups across the country.
“It’s actually quite moving, it’s good seeing the grant in action at the Carisbrook CFA,” NAB branch manager Emily Grogan said.
“Hearing how it helped a family already — I shared that story with wider Victoria for National Bank, and everyone was so moved by the story.
“It just goes to show what we can do for the communities and how it can help.”
Applications for NAB Foundation Community Grants are open all year. The next round closes on February 28, 2023 and will be awarded in April 2023.
Learn more about the program and find out how to apply for the next round by visiting www.nab.com/nabfoundation