As Cowra heads into the warmer months, Fire and Rescue NSW Station 270 is stepping up its preparations with new safety measures, a recruitment phase and important reminders for residents.
Captain Stephen Overman said the station’s focus is not only on emergency readiness but also on prevention and community education.
“One of our big things this month was a pre incident plan for the hospital,” Captain Overman said.
“We’ve had a look around the hospital just to find out where their fire plans are, what their fire alarm system is, their exit strategies, all that sort of thing.”
“So we’re working with New South Wales Health just to organise time to go around there and have a look.”
Latest Stories
“We’ll be doing a bit more of that as we get closer to them opening.”
The hospital plan is part of ongoing training and preparedness.
“Also just regular, ongoing training has been happening, just our normal drill nights,” he said.
Captain Overman confirmed that the station is launching a new recruitment phase.
“There will be a recruitment draft coming up very soon.”
“If people are able to go to the website, that expression of interest website, they’ll be able to get an early application in before the actual job goes up,” he said.
Residents were also reminded about the availability of home safety visits, especially for households without wired smoke alarms.
“Anyone can request a safety visit to have smoke alarms put up in their home, as long as they’re not wired systems,” Captain Overman said.
“We can also look at what their fire plan is if they want to do that.”
In a positive update, Captain Overman said residential fire numbers have dropped.
“Our actual call out rates have been quite low this month, so we haven’t had a great deal of house fires or anything to do with residential fires,” he said.
“That’s been really positive, much lower numbers than we had last year for the same time period. And that’s for the last three months actually.”
“It means people are taking notice of that winter fire safety message.”
As the weather warms, guidelines are in place for safe burning of garden litter.
“If people need to burn off any garden litter, it must be natural items only,” Captain Overman said.
“You can’t burn anything that’s man-made, created, or has paint, lacquer or varnish on it.”
“If they want to burn off garden scraps, anything that’s just natural wood, right up until around mid October that’s okay.”
“After that, total fire bans will start coming into place.”
He recommended residents act quickly.
“This weekend or within the next two weeks would probably be a good time to get that finished up.”
For out of town residents, bushfire preparedness is crucial.
“Anyone living out of town should prepare their homes for the bushfire season.”
“Clear around your property, make sure any tree litter is cleaned up,” he said.
“If they’re looking for more information on that, they can reach out to me or to the local RFS services.”
Captain Overman provided key contact details for residents needing support as the season shifts.
Bushfire information: NSW Rural Fire Service on 1800 679 737
Flood or storm damage: SES on 132 500
Fire permits: Contact Captain Overman directly for permits within town limits on 0459 988 020, and the RFS for those outside town.
With new recruits expected, ongoing drills and strong partnerships with health and emergency services, Cowra Fire and Rescue is preparing for whatever the summer brings.
As Captain Overman said, “it’s about making sure the community is ready, whether it’s fires, floods, or storms and we’re here to help.”
