Portland Fire Brigade, Victoria Australia
Serving the community since 1857
Major Incidents 2012 - 2013
Bakery Fire
October 20, 2013
At 13:58 on Sunday the Portland Fire Brigade were paged to a fire at the Oven Peel Bakery in Julia St Portland, The Brigade responded quickly (although there were radio comms issues with getting a turnout message to VicFire due to a large amount of radio traffic at the time) to find smoke issuing from the Bakery, the brigade had to gain access by breaking the glass in the front door of the building .
Three firfighters in BA entered the Bakery to find the fire contained in the roof space of the building which was quckly extinguished. The fire had started in an external motor of an industrial refrigerator which then travelled up the wall and into the roof. The Bakery suffered extensive smoke damage with an estimated cost of $100,00. There was no damage to neighbouring shops and the fire was quickly brought under control.
Smelter Burn
May 8, 2013
On Wednesday May 8th 2013, CFA, Parks Victoria and Alcoa Portland conducted a prescribed burn of 28 Hectares on privately owned land around the Portland Aluminium Smelter at Point Danger.
Who would have thought that we would be burning costal wattle and heath in May! In other years this area would have been too damp to burn in May but because of the very dry conditions we’ve had, it went up well.
This burn has been in the planning for the last seven years and had been cancelled four times already. The area was last burnt around 1996 and so the aim of the burn was to reduce the vegetation fuel hazard from its current extreme level, this was achieved. Once the fire took and got into the middle parts were the fuel was denser, within seconds there was a huge ball of flame in the air reaching heights of approximately 40 meters.
Vegetation Management Officer, Brendan Gordon has been working with the catchment team and the Portland Smelter to make this all come together. Brendan has put in numerous hours of travelling, mapping and planning and this was the end result of all of this work. Brendan and Operations Officer Gary Harker had divided the area to be burnt into sections and the plan was to burn the sections along the edge of the area so that when the main part was lit up, it would only burn back onto itself. This plan worked very well. The timing of the burn had to occur within a very narrow range of weather conditions to be conducted successfully. The wind needed to be a Northerly so that it would push the smoke out to the ocean and not over the town.
Crews in attendance came from the Portland Aluminium Smelter, Parks Victoria, and CFA volunteers from Portland, Narrawong, Heywood, Gorae West and Heathmere brigades. These guys are well used to working together as part of a team and they do it very well. The Vegetation Management Officers – Anthony Watt and Brendan Gordon were also on scene to see their plans all come together. It was also great to see the District 4 Operations Team all out on the fire ground together.
Cashmore Fire
March 3 2013
The fire started at 2pm and a Watch and Act message was issued for residents in Portland West, Cashmore and Trewalla.
The fire traveled in a southerly direction towards Atwells Road in Cashmore.
Seventy nine fire fighters and four fire-fighting aircraft were used to bring the blaze under control arounf 6pm.
The emergency text message system was
activated and about 1000 text messages were sent.
This was intense blaze and the rapid response of fire crews and deployement of field commanders by the Heywood group managed to contain this fire without the loss of property, livestock or injury to persons, a well managed fire fight, well done to all who attended and supported our crews on the ground.
Bushfire - Kentbruck
January 4, 2013
The fire first started in pine plantations near the Portland Nelson road and it ran into the Kentbruck state forest heading in a northerly direction.
Nearby roads and national parks were closed and residents were told to prepare their bushfire plans.
The large smoke plume from the bushfire was visibile in various parts of South Australia, including Mount Gambier and Port Lincoln.
The total size of the fire is 11,890 hectares.
Portland Brigade provided firefighting crews, Strike Team Leaders, Divisional Commaders & Sector Commanders over a period of 9 days during the height of the blaze.
This could not have been achieved without the cooperation of our volunteer firefighter employers, Portland Fire Brigade would like to aknowledge; Keppel Prince, Portland Smelter, Bluescope Steel, and all employers who allowed volunteers to take time to fight this fire, not only does the Brigade thank you but also the wider community as a whole
Tar Pitch Hamat
Febaruary 19, 2012
In the initial response Portland Brigade members recognised the potential for a dangerous and long duration incident. The liquid pitch spill was cooled by water for six days and contaminated water was trucked to a waste facility. CFA operated a level 3 incident Management Team from the Portland Fire Station. Crews working close to the leak were required to wear breathing apparatus and a specialist unit and crew from Ballarat re-filled 804 cylinders.
Hundreds of CFA members were involved in a range of roles. The incident was an outstanding exple of agencies working together in an intergrated collaborative way. Members from CFA, SES, MFB, DSE, VicPol, Ambulance Victoria, Depts of Health and Human Services, Dept of Transport, EPS, WorkSafe, Port of Portland, MAV, Glenelg Council, Grain Corp, Alcoa and Koppers were among the key players.
IGA Fire
April 19, 2012
At 4am on the 29th April 2012, an electrical fault caused a major fire which destroyed the entire store and resulted in the immediate closure of the store. Portland Brigade Volunteer Firefighters arrived on scene 4 minutes after the alarm was given by Police at about 4:45am. The CFA's quick response prevented the blaze from doing any more structural damage and halted the spread to neighbouring building.
In all 70 firefighters took part in the firefight, besides the Portland appliances, brigades from Heywood, Gorea West, Heathmere, Port Fairy, Ballarat and Warrnambool fought the blaze and assisted with overhaul . The blaze took around 2 hours to contain and Julia St was closed off until mid afternoon.