The volunteers and vehicles of Tamworth Rural Fire Service have been blessed for the fire season to come.
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In an annual event at Southside Uniting Church, the firies and their “phenomenal” work were at the centre of the service, followed by the outdoor blessing.
Reverend Simon Hansford sprayed the crew with water as he prayed for safety, good directions, a supportive community and “that they might, in fact, have a fairly quiet season”.
They, in return, gave him a “reverse blessing” – firing on him with their hose.
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“It’s a traditional blessing of the trucks and also of all those who serve us in this phenomenal way, and it allows us to give thanks for their courage, sacrifice and care,” Reverend Hansford said.
“Across our community, I doubt there’s anyone held in higher regard than our RFS members …
“We’d like to believe that they go with the blessing of God – I’m not sure if they all believe that, but many of them do.”
RFS volunteer and church member Denise McAdam said it was “an opportunity for the members and the vehicles to be blessed and prayed over to ensure a safe fire season for us”.
“It’s very dry out there and shaping up to be a hot season with not a lot of rain predicted, so we’re always going to be on the alert,” she said.
‘Saving grace’
It came after RFS volunteers were called out to two fires in two days – the latter during a total fire ban.
The first was in the Mintons area of Dungowan Dam, where Hanging Rock and Dungowan volunteers attended with state forestry firefighters about 11am on Friday.
Tamworth Fire Control Centre infrastructure officer Peter Roffe said that fire burnt about four hectares of forest and a dozer was used to help control it.
“At the moment, we’re not quite sure of the cause of that one,” Inspector Roffe said.
“There was evidence a motorbike had been there, with a tyre having been changed, but that’s not conclusive at all at this stage … We’ll be following up on that one.”
The second incident was near Bendemeer, at the intersection of New England Highway and Muswell Hill Road.
New England and Bendemeer brigades were called there about 10am on Saturday.
“That particular fire didn’t take very long to get under control, given it was fundamentally just a small grass fire,” Inspector Roffe said.
“There’s no known cause on that one; it burnt approximately one acre or half a hectare in size.”
Inspector Roffe said the RFS was “very grateful to the congregation” and “we hope it has some benefit”.
“Obviously with forest fires, the potential is quite significant unless we do get substantial rain, due to the ongoing dry conditions,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of inches of rain across a fair bit of the north, but it’s still very fragile when it comes to the conditions within forestry.
“It’s not hard to stand back and see how defoliated our gum trees have become, and the litter of dead leaves in the canopy and on the ground ...
“Our only saving grace may be that our grass fuels are still quite low in most areas, which will provide some benefit – but under severe conditions, it doesn’t take anything for fire to cross grass that’s half an inch high.”