Cann River ready for fire season

Cann Valley Fire Brigade 75 years as a CFA fire brigade

Written by Frank Herbert, Secretary Cann River CFA Brigade

Local emergency services hosted an informative community event in Cann River on Saturday Oct 9th, drawing over 150 attendees to learn about emergency preparedness and support agencies available to the community, post-fire or other disasters.

The event, named Cann Be Ready Day, featured members and demonstrations from CFA, DELWP, SES, Parks Vic and Ambulance Victoria. The local bush nurses and other community groups such as Landcare, Cann River Community Centre, Gippsland Complete Heath, Anglicare, Catholic Care and East Gippsland Shire Council were also present.

The event was held at the Cann River Recreation Reserve along Tamboon Road in an outdoor, COVID Safe format.

The Cann Valley Fire Brigade organised a demonstration of the brigade’s fire equipment, by extinguishing oil filled containers, a public display of Tamboon slip-on units, as well as a joint road rescue demonstration with SES. A large number of smoke detectors and fire blankets were distributed to the public, with kids getting to enjoy toy fire fighter helmets.

Cann Valley Fire Brigade Secretary Frank Herbert said the event was a great success and an excellent turn out.

“The aim of the event was for the community to meet our local emergency services members in one spot and for us to promote how important it is to have a bushfire plan ready,” Frank said.

“I can’t express strongly enough how important it is that every family has a plan ahead of fire season – especially in remote communities.”

All the agencies that attended spoke to locals about the fire risks involved in where they live and how they can be best prepared in the case of an emergency.

“I think the local community got a lot out of it.”

Jennie Smith, Senior Community Partnerships Support Officer, Snowy District, Forest and Fire Operations Division DELWP and Frank Herbert, Secretary of Cann Valley CFA Fire Brigade shared some fire preparedness and emergency response points.

To stick with the theme of fire preparedness, the agencies organised a raffle for locals to participate in, with the prizes being gardening equipment, torches, fire blankets, blowers and hedge trimmers.

“The team was also giving away caps to all attendees with ‘Cann Be Ready’ printed across them.”

Frank said the CFA and SES vehicle rescue demonstration was one of the highlights of the day.

SES provided a vehicle and the crews demonstrated how to remove the roof and extract a dummy from the vehicle this involved using hydraulic shears and spreaders, (the jaws of life) to open the bonnet & boot, to enable the CFA to disconnect the battery and isolate the gas tank, then removing the roof to access the inside of the vehicle and successfully rescuing the dummy from the car.

“A lot of people hadn’t seen this operation done before in person.”

The event also allowed the local services to increase their presence within the community after a tough 18 months navigating changing restrictions. It was great for the local public, to see emergency service groups, Council, Landcare and healthcare groups, working together towards one goal, protecting the community.

“It’s important our community are familiar with our brigade and other emergency services as we’re always looking for new recruits,” he said.

“All agencies got a lot out of the event as well and we’ll look for opportunities to get involved in another similar community event in future.”