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Navy
fuels NSW firies
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Firefighters
Bruce Rafferty (left) and Bernie Brown at work in Bouderee
National Park. It was feared a southerly wind would push
the Bouderee fire over the Jervis Bay Road and into suburbs
on the southern shore of Jervis Bay.
Photo by Glenn Ellard courtesy South Coast Register.
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Civil
firefighting authorities last week asked the Royal Australian Navy
for help in controlling major bushfires in the Shoalhaven region
of NSW.
The Navy, using its contractor Serco Sodhexo, responded quickly
to the request supplying firefighters and their equipment.
In addition two large Serco Sodhexo tankers carrying aviation turbine
fuel were assigned to refuel up to 20 civilian water bombing helicopters
flying out of a field at
Burrier and later from the hardstand at HMAS Albatross.
At 10am on Tuesday, November 26, the Defence Aid to the Civil Community
Phase 0ne, which allows for a 24 hour commitment of Defence resources,
was upgraded to Phase Two, allowing for ongoing commitment of resources.
The Shoalhaven, scene of disastrous bushfires last Christmas, was
hit with new blazes from November.
By late November serious fires were burning in the Morton National
Park, in the Bouderee National Park south-west of
HMAS Creswell and north of Nowra near Gerringong.
It was feared a southerly wind would push the Bouderee fire over
the Jervis Bay Road and into suburbs on the southern shore of Jervis
Bay.
Mr Colin Shaw, the Services Manager for Serco Sodhexo at HMAS Albatross
said on November 26, “for the past eight days we have had our
fuel tankers refuelling civilian helicopters.
“We have had to refuel up to 20 aircraft.”
He said when the Bouderee fire broke out Serco, through the Navy,
was asked to supply a large firefighting tanker.
“We sent a large tanker with three firefighters to the fire
and they were used to refill smaller 400 litre ‘striker’
tankers which were being used in the rough terrain. We maintained
fire services at Creswell and Albatross,” Mr Shaw said.
“The worry is that a southerly wind will push the fire over
the Jervis Bay Road. At 10am today the DACC Phase One commitment
was upgraded to Phase Two allowing for ongoing resources to be used.
At present it is like an apocalypse scene. To the north west, the
south west and even the east the sky is red with bushfire, smoke
and dust. Yesterday the temperature reached 35 degrees,” he
said.
The commanding officers of the two bases, CAPT Tim Barrett (Albatross)
and CAPT Andrew Cawley (Creswell) were closely monitoring the emergency.
A Section 44 emergency was declared in the Shoalhaven.
The Morton National Park fire by November 26 had destroyed 46,000
hectares since it began 18 days earlier. The Gerringong blaze had
destroyed 400 hectares while the Bouderee fire had consumed 40 hectares
of parkland.
“We have 100 firefighters at the Morton fire, 100 at the Gerringong
fire and a number at the Bouderee fire,” George Alexander,
the duty emergency fire controller in Nowra told Navy News.
“They are from the NSW Rural Fire Service, the NSW Fire Brigades,
the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Navy,” he said.
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