It’s time for another look back at what was happening in the world of the NSW Fire Brigade (NSWFB, today known as Fire and Rescue NSW, FRNSW) thirty years ago, twenty years ago and ten years ago!
Here is a quick spin through thirty years of history!
Thirty Years Ago - 1994
Thirty years ago, in 1994, there were a lot of legislative changes being enacted by the NSW Government that directly affected the NSWFB, specifically through amendments to the Fire Brigades Act (1989).
The Fire Brigades Act was amended to confirm that the NSWFB was the lead organisation for land-based hazardous material incidents throughout the state. This change came into effect from 1 March 1994.
Soon after this, during the Autumn session of parliament, the positions of Director-General and Chief Officer were deleted from the Act and were replaced with a single role; “Commissioner” who was tasked with being responsible for the control and management of the entire organisation. This change coincided with the retirement of the two men occupying the roles of Director General (Peter Rath) and Chief Officer (Stan Hearn). The new Commissioner, Ian MacDougall, was appointed to the role from 11 June 1994. To read more about the role of Director General click here.
The administrative result of this on the NSWFB was the appointment of a Deputy Commissioner to fulfil the role previously undertaken by the Chief Officer. Over the coming years, while the Commissioner position remained unchanged the various levels of management would grow and develop within the NSWFB.
In October 1994, the NSWFB made an organisation-wide decision to change the designation of “volunteer” firefighters to “retained” in order to more accurately represent their role within the Brigade as fully trained, paid firefighters. Today these firefighters are often referred to as “on-call".
When it comes to fighting fires the year began with, what was at the time, the most ferocious bushfire season seen in approximately twenty years. These bushfires would go on to claim approximately 600,000 Hectares of bushland, around 200 houses, and the lives of 4 people. By the end of the fire emergency the NSWFB had committed 111 appliances to firefighting efforts. Earlier this year the Museum shared a blog about this horrific incident, to read more please click here.
Following the aftermath of the devastating bushfires one of the major changes enacted by the NSWFB was the upgrading of the old hose post stations, many of which dated back to World War Two, and the establishment of the new Community Fire Unit (CFU) which trained local community volunteers to better equip themselves should they be confronted with fire within their communities.
The Museum has enjoyed working with FRNSW and CFU throughout 2024 to celebrate 30 years of the unit. A new exhibit has been unveiled within the Museum and we shared a blog about the history of CFU. To read the blog click here.
A new station was opened at Chester Hill (No. 85) with No. 44 Auburn Fire Station closing and the brigade transferring to the new site in September 1994. A new station was built at No. 223 Berrigan to replace the 1950s era station. This station was officially opened on 18 March 1995.
Twenty Years Ago - 2004
The National Emergency Services Memorial was opened in July 2004 by Prime Minister John Howard, in honour of the thousands of people who have served in Australia’s emergency services organisations. Emergency services is used as a collective description for a wide range of services provided by agencies during incidents and emergencies and includes career and volunteer workers. In 2021 the Museum of Fire’s former CEO Mark White and FRNSW Firefighter, was inducted into the memorial after his sudden death while on duty.
There were several major industrial complex fires in 2004. Notably this included one at Manildra Park Petroleum, near NHP’s Port Kembla steelworks on 28 January 2004. Below is brief overview of the incident:
It was just before 10am on 28 January 2004 that Wollongong and Warrawong Fire Brigades responded to reports of an explosion at Manildra Park Petroleum near BHP’s Port Kembla steelworks. Upon arrival the Brigade were confronted with a large flammable liquid’s storage tank alight. It appeared the 5-tonne tank had blown its roof which was now lying 20m away. As the roof had come off it had also damaged the tank’s in-built fire protection equipment, which made battling the subsequent fire difficult. The tank was found to contain four million litres of ethanol concentrate, a polar solvent. Another two tanks were exposed on the southern side of the complex and each contained three million litres of ethanol and 12.5 million litres of heavy fuel oil which was at risk of also catching alight. Eventually Firefighters with the assistance of technical advisors from the complex were able to manually activate the drenchers on the tanks at the northern end of the complex which allowed Firefighters to move in and establish monitoring equipment.
Due to the severity of the situation Commissioner Mullins and a command team including a logistics officer, media officer and safety officer were flown from Sydney to the site. Extra foam was sought from the Brigade’s supplier and by 4pm over 120 Firefighters, 22 pumpers, 3 aerial appliances as well as rescue and HAZMAT teams were on the ground at the incident. By 5pm it was decided that the best strategy was to bulk apply foam to the area, first time this strategy had been used in Australia. Unfortunately, as this process began the wind shifted, which caused the foam to be less effective on all sides than anticipated. Despite this set back Firefighters were able to reduce the intensity of the fire. With it becoming dark it was decided to attempt another foam attack at first light, this occurred at 6am. By this time the wind was more favourable, and the foam attack was accompanied with a traditional ground base approach. This time Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze that had been burning for over 18 hours in only 7 minutes. Overall, Firefighters were praised for their handling of the incident with little damage beyond the initial incident site. Once the tank contents cooled HAZMAT technicians supervised industry clean up teams to monitor the environment and the correct clean up procedures.
Ten Years Ago - 2014
A decade ago, five new stations were officially opened by FRNSW with a sixth occupied but officially opened the following year.
The new stations occupied throughout 2014 were:
No. 459 Terrigal (officially opened 14 June 2014, replacing a station built in 1965)
No. 207 Albion Park and re-named from “Albion Park Rail” to just “Albion Park”, (official opening 24 November 2014, replacing a station built in 1971 station)
No 402 Salamander Bay, re-named from “Nelson Bay” (official opening 2 December 2014, replacing a station built in 1963)
No. 421 Picton (became operational on 25 November, replacing a station built in 1963)
No. 483 Wallerawang (occupied in 2014 but officially opened 12 February 2015).
- Story by Museum of Fire Heritage Team
First came the original: six guesses, one five-letter word. Following a slew of themed imitators, Dordle arrived. In this game, you have to solve two at simultaneously, and you can only make seven guesses. Each guess counts against both grids.