BLAKE HALFORD - CONT. Gibson Bushire Brigade Captain
We had a 100km per hour plus tail wind, so we were
We kept going until we reached the bush reserve on
still a lot of fire to contain. During this I had been contacting
driving quite quickly. Once we got out far enough ahead
Styles Road and Dempster Road. A farmer there was
my other trucks to see where they were and to get them
of the fire we stopped and gave the teacher directions
evacuating his farm and animals, before returning
to help on the front. They had come back to Scaddan
down to Esperance and out of harms way. We then
to defend. My offsider and I were sick of running and
after the fire went through and put out numerous houses
decided to try and reconnect with my other fire units.
wanted to do something, so we decided to defend until
as well as the country club. I requested them to come to
the farmer returned.
the front. Over the radio I got a blunt reply, informing me
From Liebeck Road, we headed down Scaddan Road for
that ‘we can’t leave where we are’ – with no explanation
a few kilometres before getting hold of the other crews.
Just as the fire front hit the driveway, the wind change
as to why.
They told us that the fire had already jumped Scaddan
came in from the south west. At that point the fire was still
Road and was not passable.
out of control but it wasn’t as fierce or heading towards
I managed to make contact with one of my team
us. I remember thinking, ‘Righto, we can start attacking it
members by mobile. He explained to me that they had
At one point, we stopped. We could see the flames
now.’ We mopped up around the house then continued
come across several people who hadn’t been so lucky
about three kilometres away. It was all quite surreal and
on. It was a case of ‘Where do we start?’ We were just
getting out. The units had been told to remain there until
it hadn’t really sunk in what we had just been through.
one light tanker and 500L of water.
police arrived.
out and walk a few metres to take a picture, there were
Then, through the farm land to the south came a fleet of
We continued our efforts helping control the fire on the
spot fires starting 200m in front of us. Needless to say,
vehicles – trucks, utes and water tankers. It was pretty
eastern edge. When it looked like it was under control, I
no photos were taken.
nice to see them! We organised all of them to put out
informed Gavin what I had learnt, and that I was going to
everything on the southern boundary of Scaddan Road,
go back and try to get the other units back online.
We got out to take a photo, but by the time it took to get
Back in the light tanker, we headed east until we saw
then headed up Styles Road to get ahead of the fire. The
Peter Harkness in his private vehicle, he informed us we
fire was heading north east and we needed appliances
On the way back, we followed the northern edge of the fire
wouldn’t be able to go any further east as the fire had
up there. On the way we ran in to Scaddan Captain, Gavin
along Coolgardie Highway and relayed the information
jumped Scaddan Road. This was confirmed by my units
Egan, who had his farm unit. After a quick discussion we
back to Gavin Egan. We returned to Grigg Road to where
over the radio. We then started to leap frog from property
split up. We would secure the south-east section of the
our two units were stationed. Other brigade members that
to property to warn everyone and make sure everyone
fire with a few units whilst Gavin went to secure the north
were on station had organised relief crews for our trucks,
was out of harms way, and ask people to check on
east.
but one person from each truck had to stay on each
their neighbours. It was still very dark and we were still
After the south-east section was secure we headed up to
incident. My main aim at that point was to get the trucks
separated from the rest of our crew.
the north east corner to render assistance, as there was
back extinguishing the fire.
pg 50 | blake halford