Petition started to reverse DFES’ ban of Christmas water fights in country WA

The Wickham mother whose video of the annual water fight went viral last year said she was disheartened after firefighters were ordered to stop jetting water on children, ending a Christmas tradition which has been running for more than three decades. The annual lolly run and water fight between locals, police and firefighters were held on Christmas Eve in Wickham last year with footage posted by Kasmirra Dann on her Facebook showing firefighters spraying water on to excited children as they threw waterbombs back. Police also got involved, using their riot shields to block waterbombs from the children. But the WA Department of Fire & Emergency Services has ordered for the Christmas cheer to end, citing health concerns as the reason. Ms Dann said she was disheartened to hear the news. “For them to discontinue it when it’s been such a tradition and ongoing, it’s caused a lot of heartbreak in Wickham and I know so many people at the moment are doing whatever they can to continue it,” she said. “No one has ever had any issue about it being non-sterile water, there hasn’t been any issues, nothing has ever come of it until it went viral and the wrong person has seen it.” DFES operations deputy commissioner Craig Waters said the agency had a responsibility to ensure the safety of the public. “There are occasions where firefighting vehicles take water from dams or other static water sources and while the water is suitable for firefighting purposes, the quality of the water from a health perspective is unknown,” he said. Even if firefighting vehicles use reticulated water for these events, there may be residual water from other sources in the vehicle’s tank. “DFES will continue to support lolly runs and other community events that career and volunteer firefighters carry out across the State.“ Liberal Member for Mining and Pastoral Neil Thomson said the decision would take away desperately needed joy from society. “These sorts of decisions have an insidiously negative impact on the ability of our agencies to engage with our communities,” he said. But shadow emergency services minister Martin Aldridge backed the move. “Whilst I can understand the disappointment from the community arising from the decision to prohibit the use of spraying water on the public at community events from fire trucks, the DFES decision has been made on health grounds,” he said. “Firefighting water can contain traces of firefighting foam which can be irritable when in contact with skin and may also contain bacteria from non-reticulated water sources and stagnant water.” A petition has since been started by Ms Dann which had received more than 1900 signatures of its 2500 goal as of January 7.