CFA

Toongabbie Fire Brigade

Captain: Scott Mitchell  Sec/Treasurer: Don Cadwallader Lieutenants: Brett Sedgman, Tim Paulet, Jordy Dawson, Dwayne Lee

Toongabbie Fire Brigade is situated on Main Street in Toongabbie. It has a two bay engine room as well as a new large meeting/ training room, kitchen, toilets and office areas.   Toongabbie Fire Brigade has 60 members; of these 20 are active fire-fighters. Toongabbie is in the West and South Gippsland Total Fire Ban District.

A 3.4D tanker is housed in the station.

Seniors

The Senior brigade meets every third Monday of the month at 7.30pm in the meeting room. New members are always welcome.

Contact: Scott Mitchell

Mobile:  0411 296 161

Email: sbm80@wideband.net.au

Junior Volunteer Development Program

The Juniors meet fortnightly on Thursdays during school term starting at 6pm.  

Contact: Cassandra Tolsma

Mobile:  0411 422 173

More Info: http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/volunteer-careers/junior-volunteers/

Links:

CFA: http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/

Fire Ready Kit: http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/fire-ready-kit/

Concerned about smoke or flames?

It could be a bushfire or a planned burn. Remember - smoke can travel long distances.  

Also check:

Planned burns today - DELWP website

VIC Emergency: http://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

On Thursday 14^th December, 2006, a deliberately lit fire that started at Coopers Creek moved very quickly towards Toongabbie. It spotted into the hills behind Fraser’s Lane. When an extremely strong wind change arrived it took the fire along the hills, closer to the township. It spotted into the town, out into the grasslands and continued quickly along towards Cowwarr across the flats and then a wind change moved it to the Weir Road and up to Seaton. Very few people had seen a fire travel so quickly and with such intensity before.

On that fateful day we had many local fire fighting heroes, some with many years’ experience in major fire outbreaks and they were able to lead and direct their strike teams with a wealth of knowledge to those volunteers who had experienced their first ever fire disaster. This was all done in the confines of an extremely under resourced fire shed.

As a result, local resident, Kevin Kennedy, CFA member and Managing Director of Apprenticeship Group Australia successfully sought Federal Funding to build the community of Toongabbie a new CFA community hub that will better prepare CFA to manage their responses should we ever have the misfortune of experiencing another fire disaster.

For this, the community of Toongabbie are extremely grateful to Kevin Kennedy and Apprenticeship Group Australia.

              Kevin Kennedy speaking at the opening                                 Apprentices from AGA

We will not forget what our community went through in the summer of 06/07 and as such the community also owes our local fire brigade our respect.

                                         Old CFA shed 2009                                                  new CFA shed 2011

These mosaics were crafted by the “Women in Community” group in recognition of the work done by CFA volunteers involved in the large fires in Gippsland region.