Today, 5 members from Rivers Unit have participated in the Fire and Emergency Services Training Activity (FESTA) at “Balinneen” in the south of the ACT.

FESTA is an annual training weekend (that runs from Friday night to Sunday afternoon), that is organised jointly by a committee made up of ACT Rural Fire Service (RFS) and ACT State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers.  The event includes a combination of SES-related, fire related and general training activities.  Participating teams are made up of both RFS and SES members.  There is no scoring. There is no competition.  There is just learning and fun! 

There were 8 ‘stands’ (different training activities) in total, ranging from vehicle recovery to pumping to land search to a mass casualty scenario. SES volunteers even got to battle a structural fire! 3 Rivers SES members (Troy, Rohan and Ruth) joined 3 RFS volunteers to form a participating team, while Ben and Vicki judged the mass casualty stand, along with Sally and Tracey who are also from the ACTSES.

Despite the excellent organisation of the event, the number of participants seem to be down a bit this year.  We at Rivers sincerely hope that all the participating organisations will support it better in future years, as it is not only a great way to learn, but also a great way to have fun and meet more people.