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Comment by Brett Torcetti on September 12, 2010 at 8:33am

Hi all,
just new to this forum,

Comment by Tony P on August 30, 2010 at 12:21am

Paul, best place to answer thes questions is in your AussieTanker thread in this group. Maybe cancel the second one you started, the one without any replies?

Comment by Tony P on August 26, 2010 at 8:32am

I've done well, caused confusion with two people this time! ;o)

I was calling our Tankers a 'pumper' to indicate it is a firefighting vehicle, I didn't explain my use of the word. Our Tankers are close to what are often called 'Brush Trucks', or even an 'Engine'. What the west coast of the USA call a "tender" is simply a water transport vehicle, or a water tanker here.

A smal bushfire (ourcommon name for a wildfire) will have as many tankers mobilised as is thought to be adequate; a large fire will often have Strike Teams (5 Tankers and one car) mobilised, when this happens there will often be extra Strike Teams called to stay at a staging area as close support if needed.

Kangaroos? Don't even think of the word 'mouse' when the 'roo is discussed. Unless you like to think of mouse that move along on their hind legs and can stand 6 feet tall? Best to forget about mice. And rabbits. The 'roo is a big animal.

Paul, there are several photos of our Tankers on my page, they will give you an idea them. My brigades pumper is also on there.

Comment by Andrew Salinger on August 26, 2010 at 7:32am

We call enough to get the job done and have enough work for all of them if something happens and you suddenly dont need that many trucks then you ask dispatch to cancel some of the trucks if you need more then you ask for more. If there is nothing for them to do then they dont get called in the first place. We can also request specific trucks because they have better off road abilities or specific equipment that you need.
The helicopter crews over here are the same, just drop in with handtools and someone will carry a chainsaw.

I wouldn't know if its like eating mouse as iv never eaten mouse before but it is very tender and takes only a minute or so to cook. They are protected in the way that you cant just go out hunting them but they do sell Roo meat in some of the shops over here i think that they farm them but also get them from areas that are over populated with roos and they cull them.
they do roam free all over australia and they dont carry any diseases that i know of. They are out and about all of they day and night

Comment by Andrew Salinger on August 25, 2010 at 6:00am

I prefer Roo over beef any day

Comment by Andrew Salinger on August 25, 2010 at 5:59am

Tony iv never heard of our tankers being called pumpers unless they are pumper/tankers. But thats just me, i may be missing sumthing

Paul,
The biggest our our tankers (you call tenders) are between 500-3000 litres (130-790 Gallons) of firefighting water the other 1/4 tank is self protection. Yes we do have hand crews and some vehicles to transport them but all our trucks carry tools used to cut fire lines but we only use this when we need to or its not practical to use the trucks. But here in Victoria the DSE () has a some rappel crews that drop into small remote fires and cut breaks around them before they get to big. Generally we use a bit of everything as it gets the job done faster.
We do have airplanes but they are nothing compared to what you use we also use hellicopters such as the sikorsky skycranes. Last season we did hire the DC10 super tanker but it only got 1 or 2 drops for the season. we had a very quiet summer down here.

Comment by Tony P on August 24, 2010 at 9:07am

And Paul? I've eaten 'roo - but prefer beef ;o)

Comment by Tony P on August 24, 2010 at 9:06am

Paul? Mainly we'll attack fires as hard as possible in the fire season, we use 4WD off road 'pumpers' (which some States call '(Tankers)). This is the first means of attack, and the quickest. Depending on conditions, aircraft get called in, mainly choppers down here in my State. Whether these fires are on grassland, crops or forest, the methods are generally similar.


I've been on main attacks for a single fire that had around 80 of our Tankers involved (with a crew of five each), helicopters, dozers called in. I've been on massive multi fire jobs that had hundred of Tankers involved. It is all variable depending on risk, in our case to private property (and lives of course). Our details can be very different, this is a huge country with a small population and just about any sort of wildfire risk you can name. Small population means we have to make the money work hard in firefighting!

Comment by Andrew Salinger on August 24, 2010 at 9:01am

Hi paul,
Im still fairly new to the fire game but ill tell you what i know about large scale wild fire fighting over here.
basically when a medium/large fire starts we try to get trucks there and try to pull it up as fast as possible. We do have aricraft but they are small compared to what is used in other areas of the world this is largely to do with terrain and lack of suitable landing/refilling/refuling in the main fire areas.

We have 3 main fire services; 1 that protects private property, 1 for national parks and then if you own over a certain ammout of plantation land you need your own fire service.
Generally we all work together in the initial attack of a fire but as it winds down each service is left to finish the job off depending whose job it is.

We also use bull dozers and other earth moving equipment to cut fire breaks in front of fires or the flank of a fire to stop it before a wind change. If its a slow moving fire in inaccessable areas then we go in with rake hoes (we all hate them) and cut a fire break around the fire.

If the fire is prolonged then other states may send FF to the fire to give local crews a break or to bolster what is already there to try and get it out faster.
Even though we aim to put the fire out sometimes we will let it burn through to a certain point for rejeneration of that area. But it all depends on who is in charge and id say that it may change due to "black saturday"

Hope this helps. Got any questions ill try to answer them but im sure someone here knows more than me.

Comment by Tony P on August 14, 2010 at 9:39pm

You certainly are up in the scrub aren't you Liz!

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