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.