COUNTRY Fire Service (CFS) firefighters from across the Upper South East and beyond have been applauded for their courage shown to contain a devastating bushfire, which destroyed four houses in Sherwood on Saturday.
The fierce blaze tore through 12,000 hectares north of Bordertown on Saturday afternoon as more than 150 firefighters worked tirelessly to bring the out-of-control bushfire under control.
CFS Region 5 Regional Commander John Probert said the volunteers did an amazing job to bring the fire under control in catastrophic conditions.
“First and foremost, we are incredibly sorry that four homes were lost and a lot of stock and our thoughts are with those people affected,” Mr Probert said.
“Under those catastrophic conditions, there were people who had this fire getting over the border into Victoria and I could not heave enough praise on the firefighters for the work they did on Saturday.”
Member for Barker Tony Pasin said CFS volunteers make up a vital part of our community and deserve to be recognised.
“Once again our emergency services volunteers have shown tremendous courage, dedication and hard work in dangerous, life threatening conditions to protect others,” Mr Pasin said.
“There is no doubt that without these selfless efforts we would today be in a very different situation dealing with much greater losses of land and perhaps life.”
With conditions not seen since the Pinery bushfires in 2015, all emergency service organisations pulled together during the horrific blaze.
Mr Probert said it was an amazing team effort to ensure no lives were lost from the fire.
“It burned 12,000 hectares in a couple of hours, it was absolutely motoring and initially our incident control team realised we were not going to be able to stop it,” he said.
“We had to take a position of asset protection and there were some great saves of houses and property by our crews on Saturday.”
With the fire danger season far from over, Mr Probert said the Sherwood blaze was a reminder for everyone to stay diligent.
“People need to realise this could have started anywhere in the South East and if you look at 12,000 hectares of fireground, that can have a serious impact on any community,” Mr Probert said.
Firefighters will still monitor the fireground today, however Mr Probert said the crews have entered the recovery phase of the process.
“Trucks will remain on the fireground until probably the end of Tuesday,” Mr Probert said.
“A lot of stock and property was lost, so we have now entered the recovery phase and I know the whole South Australian community will band together to help these people affected get back on their feet.”
