CFA and FRV work as one to control Werribee South house fire

Photo: Uniform Photography, Blair Dellemijn

 

CFA and FRV crews were paged to a reported house fire in Werribee South just before 6.30pm last night, 6 October.

 

Around 30 CFA firefighters from Werribee, Wyndham Vale and Point Cook fire brigades attended the scene, with support from around 10 FRV personnel.

On arrival, crews undertook a primary search of the premises and determined the property was abandoned.

Werribee 2^nd Lieutenant and Incident Controller Paul Ryan said the structure was almost fully involved by fire when crews arrived.

“The fire had taken hold of the rear portion of the house, with fire extension into the roof space throughout,” he said.

“I tasked one tanker to draw water from a nearby dam and an FRV unit to lay a hose around 150 metres from the scene at a street hydrant to provide enough water for the fire attack.”

Crews had knocked down the main body of fire within 30 minutes, but there were still small pockets of fire inside the roof.

A nearby local contractor gave his time and machinery to help remove some of the tin roof sheets so crews could fully extinguish the fire.

“It was a great help – it probably saved us around 2.5 hours of work,” 2^nd Lt Ryan said.

An advice message was issued to the community for smoke in the area.

The incident was declared safe at around 8.20pm and crews remained on scene for some time to ensure there were no further flare ups or hot spots.

“We’ve responded to quite a few incidents with local FRV crews in recent weeks and we’ve been working really well together on scene,” he said.

“They have no hesitation to jump in and get involved to help out.

“All firefighters on scene worked extremely well and the incident was brought under control in good time.”

The scene was handed to Victoria Police for investigation.

 

Submitted by	CFA News & Media