Firefighters from Clonbinane were woken by their pagers to discover they were being called to a fire at their own fire station.
In the early, wet hours of this morning a pager message was sent to alert us of a structure fire at our own Clonbinane fire station. Some were alerted by the siren going off without human activation.
The siren cry for help was no doubt caused by the fire that appeared to start in our Communications Room. This fire is not suspicious, however the normal practice of a formal fire investigation is currently taking place.
It is possible that the fire started sometime around midnight but was hindered due to lack of air because the door to the Communications Room was closed. (A good lesson and it is why I close my doors at night).
Fire fighters were alerted to the fire firstly by the activation of the siren and when fire fighters arrived the alarm was raised with Vicfire.
Thanks to the quick thinking of the first fire fighter on scene, the tankers were driven out of the station to safety. Shortly afterwards the Incident Control was set up and power to the station was turned off. Pumpers, tankers and FCVs from Wandong, Broadford and Kilmore responded to the structure fire. In all there was about 30 fire fighters in attendance.
Extensive damage was done to Communications Room, loft storage area and the Meeting Room. The main vehicle bays were not damaged. A big thank you to all fire fighters that arrived to assist in the early hours of a wet Tuesday morning. Clonbinane CFA remains active and is able to respond to all incidents.
It is not the first time the fire station has been threatened with fire (Black Saturday). We remain strong, resilient and prepared. The photos were taken in the rain during the early hours of this morning. 16 June 2015.
Author: Trevor Vienet