National Pump & Energy (NPE) answered the call from the brigade by donating the system to the station.

Mudgee HQ on average responds to more than 120 emergency calls not only within the Mid-Western LGA, but across neighbouring areas, making it one of the busiest in the region.

The Brigade say that they are already seeing the benefits in the shape of improved response times to emergencies, as well as eliminating a manual handling issue.

In the past, response times to emergencies were delayed as members were required to manually open and close the heavy doors to get the fire trucks out of the station, and the new system also improves the security of the station with the new capability of the doors automatically closing as trucks leave.

Local NPE representative, Dave Cook, said, “being able to help make a real difference to the Rural Fire Services’ firefighting and emergency support capabilities, particularly ahead of what’s predicted to be a long hot summer, is something we are happy and proud to be able to do”.

“NPE has a strong community culture and we work hard to give back to locals in regions that we live and work in.”

Lightning-triggered fires a current concern

Cudgegong District Manager, Superintendent Troy Porter, said that as the Bush Fire Danger Period continues the main concern for the RFS is lightning causing fires.

“At present it has dried out significantly with the heat wave we have just experienced,” he said.

“We don’t have significant grass fuel load across the district, but in some areas there is a good amount. Our main concern going further into summer will be fires caused by lightning in the forested areas, the last storm event we had 40 fires out of the storms.”

On Tuesday morning Mudgee experienced a storm, which brought lightning [see photo] and wind gusts up to 50km/h, with 2mm of rain.