OPERATION BLUE SKIES
Student to executive
1986 – 2006
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I arrived on the Friday evening with 49 other new faces from brigades all over Canterbury with an itinerary of what was planned for the weekend.
In those early days of blue skies most of the weekend was spent on site in the meeting room upstairs with guest speakers from the police on arson investigation, the fire service TLO on LPG (it was still new then) and other various speakers from other organisations.
We did hold some practical exercises over the weekend; fuel fires in skip bins,
Also working with an air force Iroquois with monsoon bucket, being in a room full of high expansion foam without BA and the army fire appliances and equipment but the most memorable being the department of labour and the explosives demonstrations. In those early days there was no fire callouts during the night
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Now 20 years later in my role as junior vice president of the C.P.F.B.A in 2006 it is a whole new experience for the students that come to blue skies.
We run fire callouts from 2100hrs through to 0400hrs with each crew attending at least 2-3 calls on the Friday
We still have the new faces arriving on the Friday evening but the first major role of the evening is getting to know your crew and learning how to use the LMR radios and the layout and operation of the 3 appliances that they will be riding during the night for the assorted call outs staged by the Kaiapoi brigade members from PFA to car fires and even a hazardous substance alert, we were also lucky this year having a single story structure fire scenario
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On the Saturday morning after breakfast and parade with many a bleary eyed fire fighter we headed off to the Christchurch airport training ground where the students were able to experience large fuel fires up and close and how they can be controlled with the use of standard deliveries then it was off to there station for lunch and a display of one of there appliances working.
After lunch we headed off to the Lyttelton station where the Lyttelton brigade had three scenarios set up for the afternoon, they being a persons reported on board a fishing vessel, LPG gas fire and attack coordination and lastly working off the coast guard vessel with pump and suction.
After getting back and changing into undress uniform we headed off to the official meal and guest speakers fire region commander Rob Saunders and CFO Paul Burns who gave a presentation on his usar trip to china.
On the Sunday it was a bit more low key with the day starting on the combat challenge course where the students got competitive with others in there crews.
Also during the day there was a demonstration of the usar appliance and equipment, the new waterway competitions thanks to Rangiora brigade bringing their new type two appliance and a 3 pump turnout call to a structure fire with persons reported run by the Brooklands brigade.
There was also going to be a look around the Westpac rescue helicopter but unfortunately they were called out once again and did not make it.
After cleanup and a debrief on the weekend everyone started departing around 4pm looking very tired and happy and with new friends made
It takes a year of planning by the executive but this weekend could not be run without the support of the transalpine management team and the major supporting brigades of Kaiapoi, Brooklands,Lyttelton,comms centre and Christchurch airport fire.
Our many thanks go to all the supporters of the operation blue skies
For and on behalf of the executive of the
Canterbury provincial fire brigades association
Junior vice president
Mike McGillen
