Introducing our Bushfire theme within the Natural Disasters unit, the Year 5/6 students welcomed CFA volunteers to describe and contrast the fatal 1983 Ash Wednesday fires and the 2018 St Patrick’s Day fires and to improve their bushfire awareness. John Mahony (Allansford CFA) and Kelvin Boyle (Naringal CFA) outlined the weather conditions, point of origin, fire fighting procedures, wind change and fatal consequences that they experienced during the Ash Wednesday fires. They described the way the community rallied after the event to support those impacted and the improvements that were made to fire trucks, fire fighting uniforms, communications and warning systems. The current Year 5/6 students learnt that the 2017 Year 5/6 student cohort then made up fire evacuation plans with their families, produced posters and introduced bushfire awareness to their peers at TAP’s On! 2017 with the Timboon CFA. Katy Millard, Clyde Bassett and Mary Wigan (Timboon CFA) recalled climatic conditions lead to the 2018 St Patrick’s Day fires in our region only 4 months later. They described the causes, use of the Vic Emergency App, the role of the CFA and the community response to the natural disaster which included community meetings, informal BBQs, Blazeaid volunteers, donations of food, clothing and money. Students had the opportunity to try on the fire fighting gear, examine scrapbooks and newspaper articles describing the events and trial the Mount Warrnambool fire tower map. Our CFA volunteers outlined why they volunteer with the CFA and their responses included wanting to help the community to stay safe, assisting with secretarial or promotion activities, wanting to help neighbors and communities and because, “…it was just something that I wanted to do, to give back!”. These students will be tasked to develop a fire and evacuation plan with their parents and will follow up later this year with the Red Cross Pillowcase Project leading into the 2021 fire season. Comments are closed.
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March 2024
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