Tanker 1

 This is "Tanker 1", a 2.2D tanker on an Isuzu diesel crew cab truck chassis. Carrying 2000 litres of water, compressed air breathing apparatus, fire supressing foam and a host of fire fighting and crew protection equipment, Tanker 1 is our primary first response appliance to most non-bushfire incidents. Tanker 1 was nearly lost in the Black Saturday bushfires but has come back to us better than ever after a trip to the CFA's District Mechanical Officers.

 Tanker 2

 This big fellow is "Tanker 2" (we are pretty creative with these names), a 3.2D tanker on a 4WD Isuzu truck chassis. Carrying 3000 litres of water, Tanker 2 is our first choice as a bushfire workhorse. Tanker 2 is the appliance that is tasked with participation in our group strike team duties and as such has visited many areas of the state in the course of its lifetime (with a visit to NSW as well) to support fire fighting activities for the CFA.

Recently retro-fitted with additional crew protection systems including drop down thermal curtains in the cabin, fold away heat shields in the ROPS and all around 360 degree fog sprayers Tanker 2 keeps our crews safe as they work on the fire line.

Lighting Unit

This little guy (the red truck, not the old fireman) is the Lighting Unit. Known variously over the years as Support Unit and then Salvage Unit; we finally settled on calling it the "Lighting Unit", and we'll stick with this name until....well...until we change out mind again. The problem with the Lighting Unit is that it is a 'jack of all trades', originally conceived as a platform for lighting, the appliance has steadily grown and expanded as we have loaded it with more and more gear. Briefly lets look at some of the roles the Lighting Unit supports

- Lighting....and plenty of it. An extentable light mast, extendable lights, hanging lights, floating lights, inflatable lights, battery powered lights, fluro lights, LED lights, flashing safety lights, torches. Honestly I could keep going, but I think you get my point. Plenty of lights!

- Power supply. Equipped with a 3 phase generator running off the truck engine via a PTO, one 3KVA and 2 2KVA generators, the lighting unit provides enough power to run our highly complex array of lights over a very wide area; or even an unpowered retirement home (as one crew found out a few years ago). Of course we also need plenty of power cables to run all these lights.

- CABA, additional cylinders and BA Control point parephenalia. 

- Crew Relief Equipment, sounds important (and it is after a long night on the fire ground) but in reality it is tea and coffee making facilities to provide crews with a warm drink and a biscuit. It's very hard to find coffee after 3am in Warrandyte and there have been nights where we have been very popular, esspecially with the Police members who seem to be quite partial to biscuits.

- Tools of all descriptions. Power tools, hand tools and a lovely shadow board to make sure we go home with everything we bought with us.

- Positive pressure ventilation......OK, it's a big (really big) fan that we use to clear smoke from buildings after we have put the fire out.