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General News

17 July, 2023

Maryborough Fire Brigade reflect on second busiest year

With over 140 incidents, the Maryborough Fire Brigade recorded its second busiest year to date and alongside attending major fire events, the past 12 months were also marked by awards and new recruitments. As part of its 162nd AGM held on July 7...

By Prealene Khera

CFA service awards went to Michael Newman (5 years), First Lieutenant Peter Higgins (30 years Life Member), Jason Sinclair (30 years) with Deputy Chief Officer Gavin Thompson.
CFA service awards went to Michael Newman (5 years), First Lieutenant Peter Higgins (30 years Life Member), Jason Sinclair (30 years) with Deputy Chief Officer Gavin Thompson.

With over 140 incidents, the Maryborough Fire Brigade recorded its second busiest year to date and alongside attending major fire events, the past 12 months were also marked by awards and new recruitments.

As part of its 162nd AGM held on July 7, the brigade’s captain Darryl Wagstaff delivered his report detailing the local fire unit’s performance and achievements over the 2022-2023 period.

According to the report which covers the June to July financial year, the brigade attended 144 turnouts — including a major incident involving a chemical spill of about 200 metres at Sutton Tools in November last year, as well as the flood crisis across the state where crews assisted communities in Carisbrook and neighbouring areas.

Captain Wagstaff said with numbers up on past years, the brigade performed well and also provided necessary assistance when required.

“It was a busy year overall and my team certainly worked hard and did a lot of overtime — we had the second busiest year on record for the turnouts we had and the busiest was almost [three decades] ago,” he said.

“A major incident we responded to was the chemical spill, we were there for eight hours and the factory and management secured the area and evacuated the staff. We had to contain the leak within the factory and also clean it up and make the area safe.

“We also supported our neighbours in the fast moving Mount Glasgow fire which was the biggest bushfire that we had within the Goldfield’s group area for the year.

“With the year we’ve had, the brigades that have turned out to all the calls this year have done extremely well.”

While the majority of incidents responded to were related to fires and explosions, it was followed by false alarms and good intent calls — with a total of 27 reported in the last 12 months.

“We’ve had a number of false alarms at different locations and in general what we see is a lot of people ringing in when it’s not an actual fire but they can see smoke or they can see flames [and they don’t investigate it further],” he said.

“Nine times out of 10, it is somebody doing the right thing but if the fire is nearby and people want to report it, they should try checking it out first.”

Apart from the callouts, the report also highlighted new memberships recorded by the brigade which compared to the previous report, has remained relatively unchanged with a total of 43 members at present.

“Our numbers have stayed pretty much stable,” Captain Wagstaff said.

“We’ve had a few members join and then we’ve had a couple of members leave so our numbers are staying pretty normal without changing dramatically.”

Some of the members were also recognised for their efforts at the AGM with four firefighters receiving the CFA service awards including Michael Newman for five years of service, Brendan Regan for 10 years as well as Peter Higgins and Jason Sinclair for 30 years.

Other members were also honoured through the brigade’s internal awards which saw Firefighter of the Year nabbed by Charles Newman and New Recruit of the Year awarded to Brad Ohlsen.

Captain Wagstaff, who along with deputy chief officer Gavin Thompson took home the CFA Outstanding Service Award, said the work put in by all recipients was commendable.

“The members who received the service awards from CFA, were certainly well deserving,” he said.

“Even with the brigade awards from the Firefighter of the Year to the new recruit and the rest, it’s been really good because the members have worked so hard to achieve what they’ve done over the last 12 months — all of them have been very deserving of it as well.”

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