Bendigo Country Fire Authority (CFA) members trained with petroleum operators from Army Logistic Training Centre (ALTC) for the first time last month.
Major Zane Lindsay, of ALTC Training Futures, said it was organised to give the soldiers a further layer of realism to their training.
“This is to contextualise some of the realities of fighting a fire,” he said.
“The guys have a pretty good level of training but on a gas pad that they use at ALTC, they’re not getting the heat that comes from a liquid hydrocarbon fire.”
CFA pad supervisor Frank Beukelman said liquid hydrocarbon fires behaved differently and were much hotter.
“It’s a real eye-opener for them, just to experience the difference between gas fires and hydrocarbon fires,” he said.
“We had a great day. I appreciate them coming down.”
The training was conducted at the Huntley Victorian Emergency Management Training Centre, where the soldiers felt the penetrating heat of the controlled fire, firstly without personal protective equipment, then completely ‘geared up.’
They were able to manipulate the fire over several serials using CFA hoses.
Major Lindsay said the petroleum operators needed to be able to provide damage control in warlike situations.
“Part of the trade is firefighting to protect both the fuel facility and other adjoining infrastructure in a deployed environment,” he said.
“Think hospitals, ammunition points and other logistic facilities that are close to a fuel facility. We need protection from a potential fuel fire. That’s why their training is designed to fit in with that skill set.”
One of the most dangerous circumstances for any fire fighter is bulk fuel storage on fire. For petroleum operators, their priority is to keep people safe and protect surrounding infrastructure.
Army School of Ordnance petroleum operator Sergeant Jake Demmery said the training highlighted the differences between CFA firefighters and Defence petroleum operators.
“It has been really enjoyable experiencing a real, live petroleum fire and the difference in our training capabilities,” he said.
“We hold upwards of a million litres of fuel in an operation environment, so being able to suppress a fuel fire is very important.”
