 Hi, I'm John Bigam, the operations manager from District 18 in Swan Hill. Last year seeing our brigades challenged under very trying conditions with very large fires occurring early in the fire season and right up until Christmas Day. Some of the valuable lessons we learnt last year in firefighting was the importance of knowing how to do the burn over drill correctly. The district unfortunately burnt three trucks. Only one of these vehicles was lost through a burn over, but the crew were able to escape safely. It is important that your brigades practice these burn over drills, know how to do them, and have situational awareness of where your anchor point will be. I encourage you as part of your fire brigade training to practice a burn over drill and at your group exercises, it should be a compulsory exercise. Hi, I'm Nipper Turner, I'm a captain of the Swan Hill Fire Brigade. I was the incident controller at the Parsons Road fire in November and I was the incident controller at the Alderman Road fire in late December. Out of these fires there was a number of lessons learnt. With last year, the above average spring rainfall that we had, we had crops that we've never seen in the Mali before. They were probably 25 to 30 bag crops which is unheard of up in this neck of the woods, probably 1m and 1m too tall, which meant there was an extremely amount of high fuel lading on the ground. Rehabilitation on the fire ground is an important part of firefighting now. It commences as soon as the firefighters pass through. It is important that you engage with the landowner, relevant municipalities or other catchment authority to start that work early, engage contractors and certainly engage the landowners as we transition from response to recovery. Our cane a half, just behind me the fire started, it came through here, it probably took a while to get through here about half an hour, by the time it got off the lentil stubble and it just grazed past our house, which is just in front of me. After the fire was initially extinguished, the three road graders that put in a fire break, they put one greater mark on the edge of where the fire was and then they put a further one out into where the standing crop still was, the unburnt area, approximately 10, 15 feet apart, the two greater lines. Yeah we did have a couple of concerns, one was basically the stubble load or the crop that was mixed up in the control line, it was probably an average of half a metre high all the way through the middle of the paddock, we were concerned about being able to spray the paddock for weeds during the summer and the ability to get that stubble out of the dirt to level it off to sow it the next year. As part of the transition from response to recovery, John mentioned that he would be able to rehabilitate the area so that we could continue farming over the next 12 months. Yeah the rehabilitation that occurred was basically a local contractor, Wittfields, were engaged to come out and level off those areas with their graders, it was a little bit problematic because of the amount of stubble that was still mixed up with the dirt, but after the rehabilitation we were able to put a crop in and the land has been put back to usable now, so we've been able to sow the crop and it's been levelled out and we're happy that with the CFA, with how they've rehabilitated our farming area. Fireground management is an important part of firefighting, you need to understand the capability of your crew, training is an important part of this, ensure your members understand their role on the fire ground, how to sectorise the fire, the fire ground channels that you use and how you will give regular situation reports back to your group LCF or back to VicFight. Early situation reports are an important part of firefighting, they paint a picture, they may make equipment available earlier than you anticipate, it also helps with warning the public and ensuring the correct warnings are given to the public, it also may assist in the group planning to support you in operations in the field. A good set prep will contain the following information, your current situation, vehicles that you may require in addition to what's on the fire ground, the potential for the fire and any assets that may be under threat, your safety is paramount, make sure you are well trained, your vehicle is ready, your PPC is up to date, you are well hydrated and ready to go.