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5 May 2023
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Vintage: The 1998 Linton bushfire and the start to International Fire Fighters Day
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IFFD was instituted after a proposal was emailed out across the world on 4 January 1999 due to the deaths of five fire fighters in tragic circumstances in a bushfire in Australia. On 2 December 1998, a tragic event shook the Linton Community, Australia and the world. Temperatures had reached the low 30s when a seemingly benign fire that had been burning all day at Linton, near Ballarat in Australia, flared up during an evening wind change. The inexperienced Geelong West Country Fire Authority (CFA) crew, part of a strike team led by Simon Scharf, was on one of two trucks trapped while heading up a small track to refill with water. Fire fighter Scharf has been through an incredible trauma but he has never shied away from the fact that quick decisions he made under pressure 20 years ago played a part in the death of the five men.
Trucks surrounded by fire
Together with others from the then Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, Scharf had directed the trucks down the track just before the wind change came through, a decision that took the crews away from safer, burnt ground to an area of unburnt bush.
"The Geelong City crew leader's come up on the radio and he's gone, 'Mayday, mayday, mayday, we've got two trucks surrounded by fire that need immediate assistance'," Scharf said. "I'm looking at the inferno thinking, 'There's nothing I can do for this guy'."
All five of the men in one truck died in the fire: Jason Thomas, 25, Stuart Davidson, 28, Christopher Evans, 27, Matthew Armstrong, 17 and Garry Vredeveldt, 47.
The crew in the other fire truck just metres away somehow survived the inferno, their tanker barely damaged, after exhausting the last of their water and fog sprays to protect themselves from the flames.
A coronial inquest later found that there were numerous issues, including inadequate training, that contributed to the tragedy.
In addition, the fire fighting team had never received a vital message about when the wind change was due to come through.
The inquest, which ended in 2002, found insufficient training and communication problems contributed to the tragedy.
The coroner ruled that there was "dysfunctional command and control" between the CFA and the Department of National Resources and Environment at the time.
A report outlining the conclusions of the inquest stated, "The Geelong Strike Team (perhaps the most inexperienced team at the fire) was placed in the potentially most dangerous section of a wildfire — creating a control line on an eastern flank facing an imminent wind change from the south west. From the time the Strike Team was tasked to the control line to the entrapment, there was no external supervision from those managing the fire. The Strike Team Leader of the Geelong Strike Team had not worked in this situation previously."
Learning about what went wrong
The report was scathing about multiple issues that arose during the course of the fire, which was accidentally ignited by a nearby landowner's burn-off from two days before.
It concluded, "During the relatively short but violent run of the Linton wildfire numerous fire fighters' lives were put at risk during incident after incident."
One expert, Dr Neil Burrows, wrote in his report to the Coroner, "Frankly, it was a miracle that only five lives were lost at this fire given the numerous other near misses."
Scharf said he had decided to be open and transparent about what might have gone wrong for the sake of the men's families. "To me the most important thing was that the families find out the truth of what happened here, so I was going to guard that crime scene like a mother hen," he said.
Scharf shared his experience in a CFA training course set up at Linton to help other fire fighters learn what went wrong that day. The training course is just one of the reforms that have taken place since the tragedy, both in Victoria and in other parts of the country.
Putting trainees into their shoes
CFA senior instructor Jamie McKenzie said a lot had changed since then, helped by huge leaps in the development of technology. "The simple, initial thing of being able to talk to each other on the one radio was the big game-changer for agencies," he said.
Other key changes include mandatory training for fire fighters, adjustments to trucks and gear, a better command structure and improved communication.
McKenzie helped design a 'staff ride' at Linton that takes fire fighters and other employees through the events of that day to help them understand what can go wrong.
He said there was nothing like being at the site of a tragedy like Linton to illustrate the dangers to trainees. "We can write a rule and regulation for every single thing but when we have people under pressure, stressed, with time constraints, people forget things," he said.
"We can never guarantee it but the idea is if we can put people in those shoes, hopefully those lessons may just come back to them and [they] go: 'hey, this doesn't feel right' and make a change."
Scharf spoke to groups taking part, standing at the same spot he was in that day in 1998 when he made those fateful decisions. He even wore the same boots he was wearing at the time as a way to help people understand the events from his perspective. "It ties that connection to the day and it's important for me to bring something from the past into what we're talking about," Scharf said.
A memorial for the fire fighters was placed in West Park, Geelong West. Another one was put in Linton, Victoria.
This unfortunate incident is what inspired JJ Edmondson to bring about an international holiday, called International Fire Fighters Day, to support the lives lost and dedicated fire fighters who risk their lives every day to save life and property.
Sources: ABC.net, International Firefighters’ Day.org
Trucks surrounded by fire
Together with others from the then Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, Scharf had directed the trucks down the track just before the wind change came through, a decision that took the crews away from safer, burnt ground to an area of unburnt bush.
"The Geelong City crew leader's come up on the radio and he's gone, 'Mayday, mayday, mayday, we've got two trucks surrounded by fire that need immediate assistance'," Scharf said. "I'm looking at the inferno thinking, 'There's nothing I can do for this guy'."
All five of the men in one truck died in the fire: Jason Thomas, 25, Stuart Davidson, 28, Christopher Evans, 27, Matthew Armstrong, 17 and Garry Vredeveldt, 47.
The crew in the other fire truck just metres away somehow survived the inferno, their tanker barely damaged, after exhausting the last of their water and fog sprays to protect themselves from the flames.
A coronial inquest later found that there were numerous issues, including inadequate training, that contributed to the tragedy.
In addition, the fire fighting team had never received a vital message about when the wind change was due to come through.
The inquest, which ended in 2002, found insufficient training and communication problems contributed to the tragedy.
The coroner ruled that there was "dysfunctional command and control" between the CFA and the Department of National Resources and Environment at the time.
A report outlining the conclusions of the inquest stated, "The Geelong Strike Team (perhaps the most inexperienced team at the fire) was placed in the potentially most dangerous section of a wildfire — creating a control line on an eastern flank facing an imminent wind change from the south west. From the time the Strike Team was tasked to the control line to the entrapment, there was no external supervision from those managing the fire. The Strike Team Leader of the Geelong Strike Team had not worked in this situation previously."
Learning about what went wrong
The report was scathing about multiple issues that arose during the course of the fire, which was accidentally ignited by a nearby landowner's burn-off from two days before.
It concluded, "During the relatively short but violent run of the Linton wildfire numerous fire fighters' lives were put at risk during incident after incident."
One expert, Dr Neil Burrows, wrote in his report to the Coroner, "Frankly, it was a miracle that only five lives were lost at this fire given the numerous other near misses."
Scharf said he had decided to be open and transparent about what might have gone wrong for the sake of the men's families. "To me the most important thing was that the families find out the truth of what happened here, so I was going to guard that crime scene like a mother hen," he said.
Scharf shared his experience in a CFA training course set up at Linton to help other fire fighters learn what went wrong that day. The training course is just one of the reforms that have taken place since the tragedy, both in Victoria and in other parts of the country.
Putting trainees into their shoes
CFA senior instructor Jamie McKenzie said a lot had changed since then, helped by huge leaps in the development of technology. "The simple, initial thing of being able to talk to each other on the one radio was the big game-changer for agencies," he said.
Other key changes include mandatory training for fire fighters, adjustments to trucks and gear, a better command structure and improved communication.
McKenzie helped design a 'staff ride' at Linton that takes fire fighters and other employees through the events of that day to help them understand what can go wrong.
He said there was nothing like being at the site of a tragedy like Linton to illustrate the dangers to trainees. "We can write a rule and regulation for every single thing but when we have people under pressure, stressed, with time constraints, people forget things," he said.
"We can never guarantee it but the idea is if we can put people in those shoes, hopefully those lessons may just come back to them and [they] go: 'hey, this doesn't feel right' and make a change."
Scharf spoke to groups taking part, standing at the same spot he was in that day in 1998 when he made those fateful decisions. He even wore the same boots he was wearing at the time as a way to help people understand the events from his perspective. "It ties that connection to the day and it's important for me to bring something from the past into what we're talking about," Scharf said.
A memorial for the fire fighters was placed in West Park, Geelong West. Another one was put in Linton, Victoria.
This unfortunate incident is what inspired JJ Edmondson to bring about an international holiday, called International Fire Fighters Day, to support the lives lost and dedicated fire fighters who risk their lives every day to save life and property.
Sources: ABC.net, International Firefighters’ Day.org
