It was the first time he’d had members of his own brigade involved in what fire fighters know as ‘burnover’.
“Our hearts dropped,” Matt said.
Crew leader Adrian Hilder, driver Luke Miller and members Dave Kelly and Angus Bouchier, from the Cobram and Tocumwal brigades, were facing the terrifying reality that their truck was engulfed in flames.
It’s one of the most dangerous situations a fire fighter could be confronted with and Adrian Hilder said quick thinking and helicopter assistance ultimately saved their lives.
“Every year we train for this, each fighter has to, but you never expect it to happen,” he said.
“The adrenaline really kicks in.
“We were on the fireground and heading off to a house under threat, roads were all clear.
“The fire was moving that quick and intense and we went into burnover.”
Adrian has 26 years of CFA experience but some of his crew had only been in their brigade for eight months, and as crew leader he was responsible.
He activated crew protection and issued the Mayday call; then they waited.
“You can’t see outside the vehicle, so you sit there thinking ‘I hope these sprinklers are working’,” he said.
“It was only 10 or 15 minutes before the helicopter came, but it felt like three days.
“It was very quiet, no-one was speaking; there’s not much to say.
“It was very quiet, no-one was speaking; there’s not much to say.
“I just kept checking on the crew to see how they were feeling and reassuring them; they’d only been in grass fires before, nothing like this.
“In 26 years, I’ve never experienced anything like it and I never want to again … I couldn’t be more proud of the crew; they handled it really well.”
Once the helicopter had doused the flames, Adrian checked that everything was safe and briefly checked in with Matt back at Cobram.
Then the crew took a few minutes to gather their thoughts and got back to work.
The Yarroweyah fire is out but Matt said Friday on January 9 was something he’d never seen in his life.
“It was a very significant fire, and a very fast-travelling fire,” he said.
“We had to chuck every available resource at it, but being in the country it takes a bit longer to get resources to where we need them.
“Thankfully their training kicked in, and they knew exactly what to do and came out the other side.”
