Country Fire Service

The CFS Communication team at Cherry Gardens would welcome anyone who may be interested in joining, and would be happy to spend some time with you to see if it is something you would like to pursue. If you would like more information or a visit to the station, please contact Nola (0407 370 002) or Bill (0433 656 803).

We hope everyone is going well now winter has arrived – how quickly we seem to travel through the seasons. Since our local fires of January, we have been operationally very quiet although our Operations Support team is always on the go supporting communications for the larger Sturt Group. This does not mean from a firefighting perspective we have not been busy – it allows time to train, improve our skills and make improvements.

News from CFS Region 1 - Air Operations - Cherry Gardens Airstrip
During autumn and winter, we would like to put together a history of the Region 1-Air Operations Brigade. Anyone with recollections and anecdotes that could help to record the history of water bomber support at the Cherry Gardens airstrip, we would like to hear from you and would greatly appreciate your help.

With the fire season coming to an end the Cherry Gardens CFS brigade has had a chance to recoup and recover after a busy and stressful season. With the days shortening and the temperature dropping our training shifts from bushfire related activities to the many other incident types we’re likely to get called out to over winter, such as road accidents and structure fires.

There were a number of grassfires requiring Water Bomber activity at various places across South Australia during the month but only one – at Craigburn Farm on 22nd March – in our Response Zone. Although they are commonly known as “Water Bombers”, in fact the aircraft are loaded with a mixture of water and certain additives.

An overview of the season for CFS Air Support. By far the biggest incident in which we have been involved so far this season – and the closest to home – was the Cherry Gardens fire. We were called out at about 4pm on 24th January. Four hours later, when the bombers stopped flying for the night, we had completed 72 loads.

In light of the recent bushfires in and around Cherry Gardens, we all seem even more aware of the importance of bushfire preparedness and I wanted to share with the community our experience with the Burning on Private Lands Program. The good news is help is available!

The Australia Day long weekend this year will go down as a time we were tested - as individuals, as a Brigade and as a community. What the CFS subsequently referred to as the “Cherry Gardens fire” started for us with this page at 4:15 PM Sunday 24 Jan. Read more.

After a year with lots of disruption and challenges, here we are in 2021! Let’s hope this year settles down to be completely standard and routine. Please be mindful that we are well into in the fire danger season and please exercise caution with outdoor activities.

On Sunday the 6th of September firefighters were responded to a fire at the Almond Co packing facility at Pike River, near Renmark in the Riverland. Not only were a semi-trailer and a loader destroyed by fire, crews also found the very large almond husk piles alight.
If anyone is interested in joining please come and see us any Monday night.

With summer rapidly approaching, your Air Support Brigade has already been brushing up on our skills and getting the Air Support station ready for when we are needed. We all hope for quiet season as none of us want a repeat of last summer. Please do your bit by cleaning up around your place and have a Bushfire Plan that everyone in your house knows and understands.

We have been progressing along with our training schedule this month and operations have pretty much returned to pre-Covid 19 status. The brigade now has two more members who have successfully completed their mandatory Basic Firefighting course and are now able to respond as needed. If anyone is interested in joining please come and see us any Monday night.

Training is now back to pre COVID 19 rules + In June this year, we had a station visit by the State Emergency Services Minister Cory Wingard, our Local Member Steve Murray and Region 1 Commander Peter Phillips + The CFS 2020 yearbook has just been released. It gives a picture of the size and role of the CFS – 2.6 million volunteer hours is an amazing figure!

This month we continue with the second part of a Kangaroo Island deployment carried out in January this year, but first an update on the COVID-19 situation.

This fire season has been a busy one for the Cherry Gardens brigade we have sent multiple firefighters to Queensland, New South Wales, York Town, Kangaroo Island and round the clock trips to Cudlee Creek. The brigade is made up of truly remarkable people who put their own lives and at time safety on hold to go and help others is distress.

Hi, my name is Alan (Barra) Mundy and I am a firefighter at Cherry Gardens. In Late October last year, we received a call from the RFS for volunteers to deploy to NSW. I volunteered as a truck driver. And so, began my first of 3, five-day deployments… I’m lucky to have the support of my family, a wonderful Brigade and being retired.