CFS News
A great group of diverse people with a wide range of skills that come together when needed to protect and make safe our fantastic part of the world.
We hope everyone is back in their daily routines as another year starts to countdown. Somehow, 2019 is well and truly underway and I thought a good place to start this year is with our recent brigade photo. Pictured are a great group of diverse people with a wide range of skills that come together when needed to protect and make safe our fantastic part of the world. On behalf of all of us, thanks for the support and charity we receive - be it through our recycling efforts, donations or just a friendly wave as we are out and about. This means the world to us, and enables the brigade to continue to provide the best level of protection and assistance to our area and beyond.
We have been called upon to assist in various situations since last year, but at the time of writing, there have been no local major incidents or fires. Thanks to everyone who has gone about their day-to-day activities safely so far this summer. It is very important with the countryside so dry to guard against practices that may lead to an unintended fire. Please be sure to know and understand fire bans and restrictions and act accordingly. The CFS website www.cfs.sa.gov.au is a great resource for daily information, including a comprehensive “What can I do / What can’t I do” during the fire danger season and on total fire ban days.
The Cherry Gardens CFS siren is tested every Friday at 0800 hrs. This gives the community familiarity with the alarm and keeps the siren mechanism in good working order. For the last year or so the automatic signalling has been unserviceable, so the 0800 test was manually carried out and therefore perhaps not achieved every week. The fault with the automatic feature has now been rectified, so the siren will sound regularly each Friday. A paging system is used to turn out the brigade (not the siren) but if there is a local fire emergency, the siren will be used to alert our community at the time of that event. Therefore, if you are woken or hear the siren at any time other than 0800 on Friday please be aware we face a local emergency and you will need to activate your own plans. This procedure is also to assist with the poor and unreliable phone coverage in parts of our area - hard to believe in 2019, but that is another story! The Cherry Gardens siren will “wail” as tested each Friday but for those who also live within hearing distance of the Ironbank CFS station, theirs is a continuous siren so the two signals can be differentiated.
Stay safe and thanks again for your support as we work towards becoming a bigger and better brigade in 2019!