The Goulburn Fire Brigade has a long history dating back to 1851 when the citizens purchased a manual fire engine for protection against fires in and around the town. The original fire station was built in 1890 in Montague St. The early fire engine was a horse drawn turbine engine which required 12 men to operate. This was later replaced with a four cylinder motor engine. In 1909 the Brigade was t
aken over by the Board of Fire Commissioners of NSW (known as NSW Fire Brigades). In 1971 the firefighters were relocated to a new station at 157 -161 Bourke St. The NSW Fire Brigades had another name change in 2011, and is now known as Fire & Rescue NSW
The Brigade now has two fire engines attached to the station. One being a Hazmat Pumper and the other is a Standard Tanker. The Hazmat Pumper is a vehicle that combines a Rescue Pumper (Road Crash Rescue) and an Intermediate Hazardous Materials unit. In this day and age there are so many chemicals used and with the increasing number of accidents happening around the state, the Fire & Rescue NSW identified a need for these units to be created and installed in country areas. Some of the equipment carried on this vehicle include; Gas suits, chemical clean-up bins, decontamination shower, spillage booms, chemical pump, breathing apparatus, generator, gas detector, lighting units and a Lap-top computer with links to chemical databases. Goulburn’s Hazmat Pumper has a large response area and since the unit’s arrival, it has responded to chemical spills on the Southern Highlands, Boorowa, Crookwell, Queanbeyan, Yass, Lake George and Cooma. After their initial training in dealing with Hazardous Materials, firefighter’s undergo a 2 day refresher course every couple of years. Together with this and updated chemical database information it prepares our firefighter’s for dealing with anything that threatens peoples safety or the environment. All the firefighters attached to the Goulburn are highly trained to be able to handle any emergency that they may be required to attend and all have stories relating to the many different incidents that they have responded to. The Brigade has responded to many other major emergency’s over the years such as the call to ‘grass alight’ in 1980 which turned out to be the town’s biggest grass fire at which 1500 bales of hay were destroyed at the rear of Giessler Motors. At the time the city was battling drought conditions, with about two weeks water left. The firefighters used half the city’s water to extinguish the fire. Other major incidents include the Clints building fire, the 1994 bushfires in and around Sydney, the hail storms which devastated Sydney in 1999 and the 2019/2020 Bushfires. Duties:
Standard Firefighting station, Road Crash Rescue Rescue unit (backup for Police Rescue) and Intermediate Hazardous Materials unit. Appliances:
Hazmat Pumper: Scania P310 DB 4x2 (SEM Build)
Composite: Isuzu FTS 800 4x4 (6-Locker)—MTA Build. Crews:
5 Permanent firefighters (Day shift - Mon to Fri) and up to 18 On-Call firefighters.
