Mr. Warren Hicks

Pictured at Right: Laurel Shaw, Monica Tunks, David Tunks, Gavin Tunks, Ashley Hicks, Minister Zollo, Warren Hicks (Unit Controller), Frank Clarke, Mark Morgan, Matt Maywald (Regional Commander SES) and David Place (Chief Officer, SES)

Port Augusta SES unit manager Warren Hicks said that although no persons were reported missing at that time, SES were still required to search for people who may have been killed in the blaze.

"We had to search for them just in case people hadn't been reported missing... there was a lot of confusion over there, so we had to check," he said.

Port Augusta SES members teamed up with Whyalla and Port Lincoln crews and the whole thing was a new experience for our volunteers, who haven't done that type of work before.

"We have assisted with fires before, but not in that role," said Mr Hicks.

Mr Hicks said there was an expectation that Port Augusta SES would be called, so they were ready to go when asked.

"It was basically our neighbours that we were helping out," he said.

But major damage was avoided using pumps to divert water and sandbags, according to Port Augusta SES unit manager Warren Hicks.

"Water damage control was the biggest problem and with the assistance of Port Augusta Council and the

Metropolitan Fire Service we were able to prevent a lot a damage," Mr Hicks said.

Water was diverted from Browns Lane and pumped from the end of Seaview Road, saving several homes.

McCarthy Street residents were thankful that more serious damage was avoided by the quick actions of the emergency teams.

"A lot of the work was cleaning blocked gutters and down pipes," Mr Hicks said.

"The water can't run away and builds up filling the gutters then back-flowing under the eaves and into the house."

Mr Hicks said regular gutter and down pipe cleaning by residents would reduce call outs and allow SES crews to deal with more serious flooding.

Cars stranded on local salt lakes and beaches are taking up valuable unit time, says Port Augusta SES controller Warren Hicks.

SES bogged down on stranded vehiclesWednesday, 17 September 2003

Port Augusta's SES volunteers are calling on local four-wheel-drive owners to stay off the area's surrounding salt lakes, after being called out numerous times this year to retrieve stranded vehicles.Port Augusta SES controller Warren Hicks said the call-outs were outside of the local unit's area of expertise, and a waste of the volunteer unit's time and manpower."We aren't trained for this type of recovery, we don't have the proper equipment and getting your car bogged a little way outside of town isn't an emergency," Mr Hicks said."We are volunteers running on a strict budget, and we have our own jobs to do as well, so we can't just drop whatever we are doing and mobilise the whole crew because someone was driving somewhere they shouldn't have been."Mr Hicks said in the last four weeks, call-outs to bogged cars had cost the unit more than 50 hours in rescue time alone, with even more time spent cleaning and maintaining the unit's four-wheel-drive after the recovery."People don't realise the costs involved and the equipment we are risking in carrying out these rescues," Mr Hicks said."We don't want to leave people in the lurch, but it really is beyond our job description."If we broke our winch, that's $1000 easily, and we just can't afford to risk that equipment on situations that aren't emergencies."Mr Hicks also said having the SES perform bogged vehicle recoveries was taking work from local contractors."For a start, you shouldn't even be out there because to get to some of these places you have to go through fences and past signs telling you not to go further,""But if you do get bogged, call all the local contractors first, we are an emergency response service, we're not there to rescue you from this sort of thing."We can't make people pay for the service, all we can do is ask for a donation, and so far we have only received one," Mr Hicks said."People seem to have this mentality that if you get bogged, you can call the SES and we will come and get you out for free because you've paid your emergency services levy, and that's just not the case," Mr Hicks said.