This day, held twice yearly, brings together Group brigades for a day of hot fire drills, focussing on the key aspects of basic firemanship, incident command and control, and inter-brigade operations. Brigades attending included Carrum Downs, Dandenong, Edithvale, Keysborough, Noble Park, Patterson River, Springvale and Skye.
The day involved four, one hour long drills. Two drills focussed on structure fire attack and search and rescue, with the third focussed on the gas PAD and the final drill replicating a service station bowser fire.
Instructors for the day brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the drills, and included Group Officer Darren McGrath, District 8 Instructor Andy Wood, firefighter (and Northern District Training Ground Supervisor) Frank Beukelman and Edithvale firefighter Rob Trace. Additional learnings were garnered during the day with the attendance of career members Leading Firefighter Josh Redfern and Firefighter Simon Caswell from Dandenong, and Operations Officer (and Springvale OIC) Greg Christison.
In addition to the day itself, the Crew Leaders for the day attended a Crew Leader Information Night in the fortnight prior to the exercise. This night, conducted by Senior Station Officer Josey Sensi from Springvale, focussed on providing current and prospective Crew Leaders with some simple skillsets for the command and control of small incidents which could be implemented during the drills. The use of these skills was highly evident on the exercise day.
A big thanks to all those who participated on the day.
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