Blog

This week we are looking back thirty years to the year 1996. As Australia looked towards a new century, life was beginning to feel increasingly modern, while many of the traditions and technologies of earlier decades remained familiar parts of everyday life. For the NSW Fire Brigades, 1996 was another busy year, shaped by the people, incidents and developments that form part of our firefighting history. As we look back three decades, we revisit some of the stories that made 1

For decades, bright red was synonymous with the fire brigade. From hose carts to motor engines, fire engines have carried the same red paint as they sped to incidents and the rescue of others. Interest in reducing the impact and severity of fire and emergencies through the decreased response times saw permanent change to the traditional livery that decorated fire engines for over a century. FirePacs in their new test livery outside City of Sydney Fire Station, 1996 [Museum of

Firefighters attack the fire [Photograph by Michael Connaughton, courtesy of Fire and Rescue NSW] In the early hours of Friday, 24 June 2016, firefighters were called to furniture factory in Greenacre that was well alight. The factory contained a spray booth and a large quantity of paints and thinners. A large explosion in the factory resulted in flames and a severe weakening of the building’s structure. A number of 000 calls were reported at 2:47am and the crews from Banksto

At the Museum of Fire, we enjoy taking the public on a walk down memory lane. Sometimes that walk is a long one as we delve back over a hundred years, but it can also be a short one. Today, we take a quick jump back a decade to 2016. Cranebrook Bushfire, 4 November 2016. [Photographed by Retained Firefighter Brendon Roberts, courtesy of Fire and Rescue NSW] It was in November 2016 that a fast-moving fire, originating in Cranebrook, spread to the nearby Llandilo and Londonderr