Crews run hot

By Jim Mynard
BERWICK’S volunteer firefighters had a busy weekend.
The brigade responded to three calls for help on Friday.
The first was to rescue two children locked in a car at Wilson Botanic Park.
A child in the car activated the central locking system and the mother’s keys were in the car.
Her attempts to get into the vehicle failed.
Firefighters broke into the car rather than wait for a technician because the children were showing signs of being affected by the heat.
Fire brigade captain Alan Boyd said that although the vehicle was parked in a shady area and the day was not extreme, the inside of the car had become very hot.
Ambulance personnel checked the children before they went home.
Two other calls were dealt with on the Friday.
A rubbish bin in Gloucester Avenue caught alight and a fire caused considerable damage to a restored classic Volkswagen in Kangan Drive.
On Sunday afternoon, fire crews were called to a single vehicle accident in Parkhill Drive, when a late model sedan hit a tree and left oil on the road.
Firefighters spread absorbent material on the pavement to take care of the spill.
At 4.40pm they were on the road again, this time to a car fire in Tyrell Place.
A sedan parked outside a house was fully involved and a column of black smoke filled the air.
The owner had recently been out in the car and parked it outside.
He was alerted to the fire by passing motorists on Clyde Road.
There was little that fire crews could do and the vehicle was gutted in the blaze.
Later in the day, the brigade supported Beaconsfield to a fire in the vicinity of the Beaconsfield Railway Station and then it was off to Narre Warren to a smell of smoke in the Sallybrook Circuit area.