Morphett Vale CFS brigade among dozens who travelled to Yorketown to fight a bushfire
Morphett Vale CFS volunteers were among dozens who headed to Yorkes to help fight the massive bushfire – after a full day at their own station.
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“They came from all over to help save our little town,” says Julie “Nuggett” Tatchell as she crafts sandwiches for the scores of exhausted Country Fire Service volunteers.
“It means the world. At 5.30 this morning, I’m standing on the jetty and I’m watching flames licking the top and I’m getting rained on by ash and I’m thinking, ‘What’s going to happen to our dear town?’.”
The 60-year-old’s dear little town, Edithburgh, was saved thanks to the tireless efforts of firefighters, who contained the blaze on Yorke Peninsula at 6pm Thursday.
The sentiments of Ms Tatchell – an Edithburgh RSL member – were shared by Yorke Peninsula Council Mayor Darren Braund. “It would have been horrific in that situation and, on behalf of our Yorke Peninsula, I offer our heartfelt thank you to all the CFS … they’ve travelled from all parts of the state to be here,” he said. “And also our local farmers, which there are many of them out there … each one of them we owe them a huge thanks of gratitude.”
Yorketown CFS captain Lachlan Hennekam said he appreciated the feedback but wanted people to know that was not why he volunteered.
“We don’t think of ourselves as heroes, we’re here to do the job,” he said. “We do it because we want to keep our community safe. Getting feedback is nice to hear but we don’t do it for that.”
The 26-year-old has lived in Yorketown since he was five. “The community knows we’re always there for them,” he said.
Mr Hennekam was one of an estimated 600 CFS volunteers who fought 65 fires across the state during catastrophic conditions – soaring temperatures, high winds and dust storms.
The most vicious of the fires was caused by a power network fault just outside of Yorketown. The blaze burned uncontrolled in stubble towards the coastal towns of Edithburgh and Coobowie, destroying about 5000ha of land.
Mr Hennekam was five minutes behind the first appliance to respond to it on Wednesday.
“Even other members who have been here for 30 years have never seen something that bad,” he said.
The fire came within metres of 40-year-old Adam Hickman’s Edithburgh home on Thursday morning. He thanked the CFS for keeping his home safe. “We were told by the police to stay but we thought ‘Nup, we got time to get away’, so we got out of here,” he said.
“These guys (the CFS) are amazing. All I wanted to do was come and help but I haven’t got the training that these guys have got.”
Mr Hickman said it was “heartbreaking” to see local farmers lose crops, machinery and property.
A few kilometres south of Edithburgh, the fire destroyed three tractors and damaged a header at the Giles’ family farm early on Thursday, causing about $600,000 damage.
They also lost more than 8ha of crop.
Bill Giles, 51, was grateful for CFS crews, especially those who travelled from far-flung locations. “You see all the trucks and where they’re from around the place as well, some of those trucks have come from a long way away,” he said.
One of those trucks belonged to the Morphett Vale CFS crew, who reacted quickly when the call came in.
After a day of manning the station during catastrophic fire conditions, they were ready for a sleep and some down time. But that wasn’t to be.
“They left Adelaide about 8pm (on Wednesday) on a coach and got to the fire ground about midnight,” Morphett Vale CFS brigade captain Matt Bonser said.
“Many of them had been at the station all day, gone home and had dinner with their families and then got the call to go to Yorketown. We had fresh drivers take the trucks over to give the guys an opportunity to have a sleep in the coach.”
At first, the crews were mopping up the perimeter of the enormous fireground, extinguishing still burning fences posts, sheds and houses before a wind change in the early hours of the morning. But when the wind changed, so did the priorities. Small off shoots of the original fire ignited and shot off again, this time towards Edithburgh.
“When the change came through they went from mopping up to asset protection,” Mr Bonser said.
Having helped contain the fire, the southern suburbs crew were on Thursday afternoon enjoying a much-needed sleep, after a busy 24 hours on the go.
And it was not just the firies getting behind communities these past few days. As the Yorketown blaze was in full force, the Edithburgh RSL & Bowling Club jumped into action. Member Peter Bartram, 73, was having breakfast with his wife Pat when she said: “I wonder if the firies want a bite to eat”. She immediately drove up to Yorketown and gathered sandwich supplies. When she arrived, she found “Nuggett” hard at work in the kitchen, looking to feed the hungry firefighters.
They made more than 100 sandwiches, some filled with ham and cheese and others with beef and pickles, some even with fritz and sauce – “Anything we could lay our hands on,” Mrs Bartram said.
“If I could have put carpet in between, we would have sent that out,” Ms Tatchell said.