Aidan Curtis
THE Mount Gambier/Berrin State Emergency Services (SES) unit has received a welcome safety boost following the purchase of new chainsaws.
SES bought the new chainsaws after they received a grant to the tune of $9,712.82 from the Mount Gambier / Berrin branch of National Australia Bank (NAB).
SES unit manager Mat Tye said it was very exciting to be able to bring in so much new equipment and improve safety for SES crews.
“We were running 20-year-old chainsaws, so they were getting a little bit long in the tooth,” Mr Tye said.
“[The new chainsaws] are a little bit lighter too and easier to start, so we’re not pulling on the cords as much anymore.
“They’ve got a lot of different safety devices on the chainsaws themselves, like the chains have a non kick back chain on them.”
In addition to new chainsaws, the unit also bought additional safety equipment to go with them.
“We’ve got new chaps as well that go with this equipment – they go around the legs and the waist, so if the chainsaw does kick back, it’s going to grab into them and won’t go into the person,” Mr Tye said.
Mr Tye said with the addition of new chainsaws, SES will now be able to have two vehicles on the road with chainsaws in them at all times.
“We can get to trees down on roads a lot quicker and we can get them cleared a lot quicker now too,” he said.
“We got some electric chainsaws as well that can go in our smaller QRVs [quick response vehicles] as well, so if we get a smaller tree down on a driveway or in the urban areas of Mount Gambier, we can go there and it’s a lot less noise.
“So we’re not interrupting people’s days or during the night, we’ll get calls at 2am or 3am and we don’t want to be waking the neighbours up, so we can use these smaller chainsaws to quieten down that noise.”
He said it was a great time for the unit, with member numbers slowly building over the last three years.
“We’re slowly growing and we’re getting more and more members over time,” he said.
“To have NAB back us and help us in this way, it’s great so big thanks to NAB and the community.”