Fire in Fyshwick

Typhoon said :

Was evacuated from Kembla st, was definitely a synthetic fire of some sort. We heard teh drums exploding about 1km away.
Road closures will remain in place for several hours, as the fire dies down, smoke will increase.
The evacuation of Fyshwick was a farce, all traffic directed onto one road, with four seperate roads funelling traffic into it. Fortunately I was on a motorcycle or I’d still be there.
Me thinks their emergency plans need refining……….

Methinks with there being limited roads in/out of Fyshwick, there was little choice but to funnel. You mean you broke the road rules to get ahead in traffic on a motorcycle? Unheard of.

TP3000 – RFS use of TRN is not encrypted. If it was then this (http://www.southern.conder-act.com/radio.htm) would be impossible and illegal.

I reckon the fire’s part of a government conspiracy to finally get Jack Martin kicked out of that scrap hovel so they can sell off that land.

andym said :

Also the RFS BFS radio is still operational on VHF channels and again is cross linked to the ACT RFS talkgroup on the digital system. So a “old” type of scanner like SCANACT will pick up the transmissions.

As far as I know if RFS use the TRN network it is encrypted with the finishing touches being applied over the next few weeks. Of course as per our el-cheapo Government, the TRN Network does occasionally not work, so ESA gets them to use UHF which anyone with a UHF thingy can listen to.

Hev submitted an article with some crappy photos I took as I was walking out of fyshwick, mostly of traffic but got three shots of the smoke not long after it started, it went toxic black at one stage and they had 2 helicopters water bombing the fire we could see.

“Me thinks their emergency plans need refining……….”

There probably isn’t a specific ’emergency’ plan or evacuation plan for the specific situation in Fyshwick today. It would be unrealistic to expect emergency services to have an off the shelf plan for every possible hazard or situation. Where there are plans these typically focus on command and control structures, communication (intra and inter-agency), reporting mechanisms and resource allocation. This type of approach allows agencies to respond flexibly to incidents which are rarely identical in terms of the threat and risks they pose.

The evacuation phase of an incident can often seem chaotic and disorganised because emergency services have to make snap decisions about evacuation areas, extraction routes, safe zones etc while still managing the incident scene. In this case people who wished to leave were evacuated without loss of life, injury or damage in a very short period of time – and traffic disruptions were kept to a minimum. A pretty good result considering the circumstances.

Dr Phil,
Correct AFP and urban fire brigades are digital and are ENCRYPTED. However with RFS and other units on scene COMCEN will place all units / people attending on a common channel which is digital and UNENCRYPTED. No issues monitoring and unencrypted chanel with a digital scanner.

Also the RFS BFS radio is still operational on VHF channels and again is cross linked to the ACT RFS talkgroup on the digital system. So a “old” type of scanner like SCANACT will pick up the transmissions.

‘Me thinks their emergency plans need refining……….’. Typhoon @13.

Can’t agree more. Just what do you do with a couple of B Doubles heading north on the Monaro when the highway is closed south of Canberra Ave? There would be very few options (and no parking) for these fellows when they are sent down the off ramp to Canberra Ave. As happened this afternoon.

The Police did as they were presumably told. Someone assessed the situation and decided the road closures. Well done. But this situation probably required a bit more thought.

I heard that a gas main caught on fire and they were scared that the small ACTEWAGL substation might go up so they evacuated everyone.

I’ve been listening here.