Brenton Doyle-Smith

An image of a G-Wagon suppressing a fire with a huge plume of smoke and a helicopter flying above says so much about the bushfire battles happening in Victoria. General Firefighter Brenton Doyle-Smith shares the story behind the photo and how a small crew can make a big difference.

My story is about the fire that started near Euroa in north east Victoria on 4 January. My photo was used by the ABC so I wanted to put a story behind it.

Departing early morning from Wangaratta, bound for the Alexandra depot, we came across a smoke column rising from the hill off the bypass to Euroa. At first, I didn’t know if the fire was supposed to be there. This was followed by an uneasy shock when I referred to Vic Emergency and confirmed it wasn’t supposed to be there.

I passed this information onto the crew leader who I was with, pulled over and we requested permission from the Duty Officer to help with the fire. After making the call and deciding our action we took off to render assistance to the local and incoming CFA brigades. Ten of us, crewing five G Wagons (Alexandra, Marysville, Broadford and Toolangi x 2), leapt into action doing what we could to prevent the further spread of the fire.

After countless rake hoe lines and being able to get a G-Wagon to the head of the fire, we made it our mission to stop it. Battling high winds and fluctuating fire conditions added to the complexities that we were facing. Being on a hill made the fire very unpredictable and dynamic.

We battled for six hours alongside CFA crews, and helicopters, to reduce the spread of the fire, using several different tactics – direct, indirect and running grassfire (driving by with a hose out the window).

At the time of our departure we were thanked by the CFA Incident Controller for our efforts, working alongside the local CFAs, to suppress the fire.

Page last updated: 07/02/20