Fiskville Cup tests firies

By Lachlan Ellis

Local firefighters have taken part in a round robin competition, helping prepare each brigade for the summer ahead.

While the Fiskville Cup competition is more about testing the brigades’ ability to respond to different scenarios than winning, this year’s winner was the Ballan Fire Brigade, with their crew leader Ben Bialek also winning the Best Crew Leader award.

Also taking part across the Cup’s nine events were the Bacchus Marsh, Blackwood, Gordon, Greendale, and Millbrook Fire Brigades.

Ballan Group of Fire Brigades Group Officer Shane Cramer said taking part in the Fiskville Cup was a great learning experience for firefighters.

“There are a couple of advantages to an event like the Fiskville Cup. One is it’s very compressed – in the normal course of brigade training which happens periodically, it might take a year or two to cover all those subjects. Whereas with the Fiskville Cup, you’ll do all those things in one day,” Mr Cramer told the Moorabool News.

“For new recruits, it’s quite intense in some ways. But it actually opens their eyes to the breadth of things we might be asked to deal with. It also addresses a lot of safety aspects with operating around fire appliances and emergencies, it’s an opportunity for crew leaders to be tried and tested, and our drivers too.”

Participants took part in a gas fire lounge room POD, motor vehicle accident/first aid scenario, burn-over/entrapment drill, draughting from tanks, tree markings and chainsaw use, running grass-fire edge simulation, structure fire simulation, and collar tank awareness.

The event also went beyond fire and first aid drills with a peer support briefing, running through the mental health impacts of the CFA’s work, and how to support fellow firefighters.

The Fiskville Cup has been around since 1974, and was donated by the Fiskville Training College for pre-fire season training.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic and poor weather have seen the Cup cancelled over the last few years years, the local brigades aim to hold the competition once a year when possible.