The February, 2019 Punty Lane fire is regarded as one of the biggest fires the Brigade has confronted in the Shoreham district. Without the quick response and extensive resources applied to the fire, the incident had the potential to cause significant damage to the Shoreham and Flinders communities.
At 12.31pm on Thursday the 28th February, the Shoreham Brigade was called out to grass and scrub fire at Punty Lane near Tucks Road, Shoreham.
It was a hot and windy day with temperatures at Shoreham reaching 36.2 degrees and winds gusting at up to 43km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The fire appeared to start in pine needles below old pine trees estimated to be 80+ years old. The cause is still unknown. But aided by the very strong north-easterly wind, the fire was spreading rapidly along the row of trees, then downhill via long grass and bark into an adjoining Blue Gum plantation.
Fortunately, the well-advanced plantation had no understory or low branches and the fire did not get into the crown. Had this not been the case, the fire had the potential to spread significantly further. An emergency warning was issued for people living south-east of the blaze about 1.45pm on Thursday, 28/2/2019.
The map below shows the Emergency Vic map as at 28/2/2019 at 2:45PM with watch and act alerts for Shoreham and Flinders.
The response was rapid with brigades from Shoreham, Flinders, Red Hill, Balnarring, Main Ridge, Boneo and Somers turning out for the initial attack.
Shoreham’s Captain, Tony Wain, whilst we thought clearly articulated the urgency of the situation by his now memorable quote “make Tankers lots” was requested from FireCom to provide some slightly more precise details of extra support required. Which he did.
At the height of the fire there were approximately 35 tankers, 3 Bigfills and numerous other support vehicles on-scene, more than sixty vehicles over the first two days, mostly from District 8 Westernport Group and District 9 Peninsula Group. In addition, three Helitack water bombers, including two Erickson Skycranes, were also on-scene early, using local dams and sea-water at Shoreham to make a significant contribution to bringing the blaze under control.
Residents reported the two Erickson Skycranes made an impressive sight as they flew repeatedly over the town picking up water from the sea to attack the fire. Just before 4pm, Vic Emergency downgraded the fire to “watch and act”.
After the fire was contained, the time-consuming task of blacking out, as well as dealing with a few flare-ups, absorbed the next 4 days. The Shoreham, Balnarring and Main Ridge Bigfills, 4WD vehicles with demountable water pumps used to extract water from dams, streams, swimming pools and other water sources, refilled tankers over the four days on the fire-ground and pumped water directly to hoses around the pine trees. It is estimated that well in excess of 125,000 litres of water were pumped onto the area during this 4 day period !
We thank our local Brigade, their colleagues from elsewhere on the Peninsula, surrounding areas and the fire-bombing crews for their prompt action in dealing with the emergency and protecting our lives, livelihoods, animals and towns.
Tony Wain was particularly grateful to the fifteen Shoreham volunteer fire fighters who responded at various times, and on multiple occasions, including a call-out at 2.13 am on the Sunday morning to deal with a further flare-up as well as blacking out, over the 4 days.
For further details, please see: Peninsula bushfire under control after burning close to homes (theage.com.au).