CFA has been working closely with a partner fire agency in South Australia to gain greater knowledge and skills when using the Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) to fight fires.
The South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) invited a few CFA members to attend a CAFS training course at Mount Schank Fire Station in South Australia recently on 8 and 9 December 2022.
CAFS is a high energy air and foam system which improves the effectiveness in fighting certain types of fires such as coal mine, grass and scrub fires, along with structure and recycling fires. It also reduces water usage and chemical suppressants, therefore increasing efficiency to put fires out more quickly.
Commander John Zuccarelli, who is working on the project said CAFS provides our firefighters another form of effective fire suppression.
“CAFS reduces the use of water, resulting in lighter firefighting hoses and therefore increasing efficiency along with bolstering CFA’s capability,” Commander Zuccarelli said.
“This also greatly improves the bubble structure with the added benefit of the ability to alter the water to air ratio and wetter or dryer finished foam solutions.”
Commander John Zuccarelli along with Dartmoor Group Officer Neale Emerson and Dartmoor Group Secretary Fiona Emerson went to South Australia for the training course to witness how CFS deliver the CAFS package.
Dartmoor Group Officer Neale Emerson said the training course was very informative and worthwhile for CFA’s future use of CAFS.
“This is a great example of an incredible partnership between our partner fire agencies which provides an opportunity to learn from each other and improve our firefighting abilities,” Group Officer Emerson said.
“It was also a fantastic demonstration of the cross-border relationships that have been built and maintained by our brigades.”
CAFS has already been used in Victoria to fight several fires including the Hazelwood Mine fire in 2014 and Ecotec rubbish fire in 2015.
CFA has two tankers with CAFS capability at Traralgon South and Churchill Fire Brigades and is looking into the possibility of extending this capability further in the future.