New interactive safety sign for Tilligerry RFS Port Stephens Port Stephens by News Of The Area - Modern Media - June 20, 2022 The new sign in operational mode. IT wasn’t long ago in Tilligerry that local firies would drag a sheet of blackboard out of their station in summer with a ‘Total Fire Ban’ warning hand written in chalk on it. This they would prop up against a post on the main road as a warning to locals. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Not anymore! Tilligerry Rural Fire Service has just switched on an impressive interactive sign which can be activated from a computer from their station or by mobile phone. In standard operational mode it has coloured rolling frames giving details of the brigade and its logo as well as the date and weather details. More importantly, when the fire conditions change, warning texts can be keyed in immediately from the station computer or from the mobile phones of senior personnel. This could extend to sudden unexpected events such as fires closing roads and major traffic accidents. It could also save lives as communications from the fire-front could be instantly displayed to those travelling both in and out of town. In turn, it could augment the RFS’ ‘Fires Near Me’ site. Early warnings have always been vital to residents of both the Tomaree and Tilligerry peninsulas. There is only one road out of each and an approaching fire from the west can isolate the residents. This was only too evident several years ago when a bushfire cut the road at Oyster Cove and worked its way towards the Lemon Tree Passage Holiday Park. Occupants were evacuated to Club Lemon Tree. The following summer a firestorm from Salt Ash, fanned by 90 kph winds, came our way. When it hit the burnt out scrub it went out. No fuel meant no fire. The overwhelming recommendations of the recent bushfire inquiry were to decrease fuel loadings by controlled burning. The Government has now allocated some $600,000,000 to both the RFS and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to upgrade equipment and to target fue loadings in high risk areas. By Geoff WALKER The ‘friendly’ fire that saved Tilligerry.
