Firefighters home – but stay on alert

By Sarah Schwager
LOCAL CFA volunteers were delighted to return home from Gippsland for Christmas after being told they would spend the day helping fight fires.
Crews from Casey set off to help control blazes the week before Christmas and most were sent home on the evening of 23 December.
The ticket home came after a cool change in the weather stopped the Gippsland fires from spreading.
Even at home, they were still busy fighting a large scrub fire that started in Cranbourne on Christmas Eve.
However, they were at home with their families on Christmas Day.
Tooradin CFA captain David Bulman said many crews returned to Gippsland to help out on the weekend and so missed being at home for New Year’s Eve.
They were due to return home early this week.
Cpt Bulman said despite the easing of fires in Victoria there was still worse to come.
“We are approaching our worst time – late January and February,” he said.
“We have seen nothing compared to what we are probably going to see.”
He urged people to busy themselves preparing their homes for fires.
“We just don’t know what is going to happen this year but my guess is we haven’t seen the worst of it,” Cpt Bulman said.
“It is going to be very dry so people have got to be careful.
“People also have to remember that water is going to be scarce and we haven’t got the dams to put out fires like normal.”