Every year the Portarlington CFA Members assist the Charity Carnival to raise money for the  purchase vital equipment to support the brigade’s operations.

We like to thank the Brigade Members, Families and Friends for giving there time to help raise funds.

The Charity Carnival operates from 24th December until Mid January every year on the Foreshore

At 18:00 the Portarlington fire brigade was called to its first grass fire for the 2008/2009 fire season. The fire was accidentally started by the hot exhaust of a ride on lawn mower as a resident was preparing their block before the hot summer months. The surprising thing about this fire is that it was located in the urban area of Portarlington. This shows that it is not just rural areas that can be affected by grass and scrub fires and that all property owners should consider cleaning up long grass and burnable rubbish around their properties before the fire season sets in.

The Portarlington urban fire brigade entered two team into the annual Geelong Agricultural Show bale of hay competition on the 16th and 17th of October.

The aim of the competition is to simulate a grass fire where the brigade uses a tanker to extinguish the blaze that is lit in a controlled environment. The competition was held in two heats on the Thursday and Friday nights at 19:00 with Portarlington entering a team on each individual night.

The results for each team was as followed:
The Thursday team had a clear run and clocked up a time of 41.85 seconds for their run which was not good enough to get a place but good for a team of mostly new recruits.
The Friday night team that consisted of some experienced firefighters and clocked a time of 34.05 which would have given them 2nd for the night, however it was not a clear run and the team was disqualified for missing a small patch of fire.

The overall winner of the event was the team from Geelong City fire brigade who also won Thursday night with a time of 32.76 seconds with the Friday night victory going to a team from our neighbouring brigade Drysdale with a time of 33.25.

The brigade was happy to accept a brand new 2.4C tanker to replace the 3.2D that has served the brigade for the past 8 years. The new tanker has considerable upgrades compared to the old tanker such as a dual cab so all fire fighters are seated inside, improved crew burn over protection, four wheel drive and greater increases in technological design in generally all areas. The new tanker will come online in the coming weeks and for all those interested we welcome you to come on down to the station and have a look on Sunday mornings after 9:00am.