Ripley Fires

(18 April 2007)

Only a week after the arrival of the new welfare trailer, it was out feeding 60 firemen at a large grass fire in the Ripley area.

The trailer easily supplied a nice hot dinner and a well deserved hot drink. After it was all over it took just 10 minutes to pack everything away and be on the way home. A big difference to when it would take up to an hour to pack everything on a truck or trailer and unpack again when you got back to base.

This trailer will be a huge time saver to everyone.

Palm Tree Falls on House

(3 February 2007)

A call was received from a home owner stating that a large palm tree from her property had fallen on the neighbours house. A team from Ipswich arrived and informed that it was too large to remove and they would need a crane. 

A call was made to a local crane company and asked if they could help on a Sunday. The reply was no problem and they were there in 30 minutes and lifted the palm tree off.

 The team of SES members from Ipswich cut up the tree and saw to its disposal. The home owner, a pensioner, was very appreciative and could not stop thanking us. It was one of those jobs that made being  an SES  member very rewarding.

On the 16^th December, a storm went through causing lots of damage in the Esk Shire.

Ipswich caught the edge of the storm causing two leaking roofs in Rosewood and a job in the Marburg area at Barellan Point. 

Here a large tree was struck by lightning splintering the base and spearing parts of the tree into and on to the roof of a lowest house causing a lot of damage. Marburg ’s Garry and Sandra detoured to the job on their way to Fred’s birthday party and they were joined by Ken and Terry from Ipswich . 

By the time they arrived at the party five hours later they thoroughly enjoyed the meal kept hot for them even if most of the party goers had already gone home.

A male person from Melbourne went for a walk at 5am on a Wednesday and was reported lost that afternoon. Members from the Gold Coast Unit searched in vain and called in other units to assist the next day. 

7 members from Ipswich, 4 from Goodna, 4 from Marburg and 4 from Rosewood went to Springbrook early Thursday morning and helped 50 other members with the search. The search was in very rugged rain forest with no result. 

On Friday the search was recommenced and the man was located late afternoon at a farm. He suffered from slight hypothermia, insect bites, leeches and ticks. He should make a full recovery. When asked what happened he stated he wondered off the track and became disoriented.

Marburg Search

4th. August 2006

A man was reported missing from his home in Bayside Brisbane and police tracked him via his mobile phone to an area near Marburg.

A search was commenced for his vehicle and as the area involved both the Lowood and Marburg groups it became a joint Ipswich and Esk search.

Unhappily, although the Toogoolawah team located his car, the man was deceased.

This successful search was a joint endeavour between the QPS, Telstra and SES.

Four vehicles from the Esk Unit and four from the Ipswich Unit covered 607.1 km. during the search.

Cyclone Larry

Three teams from the Ipswich Unit went to Innisfail to assist with the clean up after the devastation of Cyclone Larry.

The first team, consisting of specialist chainsaw operators and roof workers, left on the Wednesday after the cyclone hit and returned the following Sunday. This team consisted of Glen Pardy, Tim Burchmann, Darrin McMullin, Mark Archer, Jason Daniels and Peter Adams.

The second team went on the Monday returning on the Friday. They too were specialist operators. The team consisted of Ralph Williams, Cameron Hinton, Bob Reck, Matt MacKellar, Aussie Philipsen, Andrew Smart and Daniel Archer.

The third team left on the Sunday. This team consisted of Arie van den Ende, Beth Suhr, Fred Sheather, Ken Ord and two members, Mark Archer and Ralph William who had already done a tour of the area. This team had a more personal contact with the people. They were part of a taskforce of 100 SES members asked to do a special survey for General Cosgrove. They had to survey 10,000 residents from the Johnstone Shire.

A special Jaffa issue has been produced to tell some of the stories from Innisfail.

Congratulation must go to the seventeen dedicated members who gave up their valuable time to go and help out. From our contact with the Innisfail residents this was very much appreciated.

Light Aircraft Tragedy

2nd. January 2006

The Unit was asked to assist with providing teams for a forensic search and other various things at a tragic aircraft accident in Ipswich.

 A plane carrying 6 parachutists and a pilot had crashed into a dam near the airstrip after the engine appeared to lose power. The aircraft had trouble gaining altitude and clipped the top of a high gum tree. A section of wing was ripped off causing the plane to crash into the dam. 

Two passengers survived the crash and were taken to hospitals in Ipswich and Brisbane. One is in a serious condition and the other is doing well. The other five passengers were still in or near the aircraft when we came on the scene. 

Divers worked into the night to retrieve them. The aircraft was lifted from the dam the next day showing extensive damage. Most passengers came from around South East Queensland but two were from overseas. 

SES Units train for such an event every year but never think that it would be for real someday. Our condolence to all the people affected by this event