SALVATION ARMY EMERGENCY SERVICES

(SAES)

South Australian Division

ALL I WAS TRYING TO DO WAS HELP

Whenever in a country town we like to support the locals with the purchase of food and supplies. Usually this is very welcome by the locals who always want to help and feel they are part of the catering effort. This is not always possible due to the large catering supplies required at times. Around 8am one morning I visited the local baker thinking he would be delighted to supply us with 30 loaves of bread. How wrong I was. ‘What’, in quite a loud voice he claimed, ‘you can’t come in here asking for 30 loaves of bread, that’s almost half of my daily bake. If you want that much bread you have to place an order!’ So it was off to the local supermarket and I purchased the necessary 30 loaves of bread that had been supplied from the city!

A BRAND NEW BBQ

During the early stages of a very large bush fire requiring a large catering effort we had some initial trouble with one of our BBQ's. An offer was made from a 'local' to loan us his brand new one, which was a Christmas present that had not been used before. He was quite proud of the fact that it would be put to good use by the Salvo's.

I am not sure what went wrong but it suddenly exploded in a huge ball of flame and in a few seconds was completely wrecked! The look on the owner’s face was something to see! We bought him a brand new replacement but did not use it!

RANDOM BREATH TESTING STATION

After a somewhat hectic day, which started at 4:30 am in the morning, on the way back to the motel accommodation very late one evening, I came across a random breath testing station. The officer requested the vehicle be stopped and then said ‘so you are the guys who have been around town feeding the fire fighters eh?’ Yes sir came the somewhat formal reply with the mouth open ready to blow in to the little white tube. ‘Well,’ came the reply, ‘there is no way I am going to hold you up – on your way then!’

That is probably the only time I will ever get through a random breath testing station without having to blow in the tube!

GET OUT OF THERE FAST!

One request for catering came in the early hours of the morning and required us to set up in almost complete darkness. After receiving instructions as to where would be the best location, we were directed to a large clearing on the top of a hill - 'over there'. We duly set up all of our equipment and spent several hours looking at the fires in the distance waiting for breakfast time. Around 5:30 in the morning we were instructed to pack up and leave the site immediately!

It had been realised at daybreak that we had been instructed to set up right in the middle of the runway used by the water bombing aircraft!

AND AT A POLICE STATION TOO! 

Back in the 1980's, one of the sieges we attended to provide catering for the police and star force was in the country and we established one of our smaller catering trailers at the local police station. After being on site for several hours a senior police officer came up to me and on the side informed me that the SAES trailer was well out of registration! This blatantly was on the grounds of the police station. I was stunned. What could I do or say. The look on my face must have said it all so the police officer picked up a large rubbish bin and placed it in front of the registration sticker 'so that no one else sees it'.

I can't remember what happened for the return trip, but I suspect it was done completely illegally!

PULLING OVER A POLICE CAR

Occasionally after all have been fed at a fire staging area, some food is left over. During one trip, early evening, at a large country town I saw a police car further up the road. I immediately started flashing my high beam to try and get their attention in their rear view mirror. It worked and they pulled over. They were delighted to receive several chicken hot packs to take back to the police station for their colleagues.

THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW

One country town we spent several days at was on a main highway and we established our 'kitchen' at the Country Fire Service station. The town policeman was a real 'character' and spent a lot of time where all the action was - which was the main control centre for the fire fighting effort. I observed that about every hour this local policeman would disappear for about 15 minutes and then return. This went on for several hours and it was too much for me so I asked him in a roundabout sort of way why he seemed so regular in his comings and goings.

'Oh that's quite easy to explain' he said, 'I just go out to the highway for a while and scare the tripe out of a few motorists!' - Except he didn't use the word tripe!

UNWELCOME PAGER MESSAGE

At one of our call outs we were located in the country in a very poor coverage area for our mobile telephones and pagers. It was a case of total unpredictability at best!

On one occasion I recall being in dormitory style accommodation, on stretchers, with several other people when my pager went off at 3 am in the morning. I could not believe it! Not wanting to turn on any lights where I would disturb others I fumbled around getting dressed in the dark and then drove seven kilometres to the top of a hill where I knew my mobile telephone would work.

When I telephoned the person who paged me, the message was of no real importance and could easily have been conveyed the next day. The sender was on night duty and thought he would get the message 'out of the way'!

COUNTRY HOSPITALITY AT ITS BEST

There have been many occasions where country hospitality has been shown to us.

On many occasions - usually during prolonged call-outs - complete strangers have handed our volunteers keys to their homes, and with directions on how to find their place, invited us use their shower and take anything we want from their refrigerator and if time has allowed, have a quick sleep during the day.

Many of our people have been provided overnight accommodation with complete strangers. Other occasions have seen the locals set up bedding for us in Institute halls.

Then there was the time in the East of the State when after returning to a motel after a very long and hard day feeding the fire fighters, one of our married couples climbed into their bed and it collapsed! House bricks holding up one end of the bed had moved. At least the bricks at the other end were ok!

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