Regional fireys: how fighting fires saved their lives

Australian Community Media

Regional Aussies from the Maiden Gully CFA open up about how volunteer firefighting transformed their lives, from personal struggles to becoming leaders in their community.

Transcript

00:00I joined CFA about 1998 when I was 14 as a junior. Me and another guy got in trouble a few times at

00:15school and Andrew pulled us up and said do you want to join the fire brigade as juniors and

00:21especially it's have happened really. It's really nice to know that you've got people who are going

00:28to you know take on from where you left off you know it's a pretty nice feeling that the brigade

00:34captain you started off teaching probably in year seven. I'm really immensely proud of all that as

00:40an ex-teacher. We ran a program at the school at the time and four at least had gone on to get career

00:46jobs. The whole thing's a little different from you know very academic school stuff that are practical

00:50stuff and they're the sort of programs that need to run in schools for a range of different students.

00:57Just being able to help the community and being there for people when they needed me the most

01:01that's always been a big part of my personality is just always wanting to be helped and be caring.

01:05Initially I was thinking of being a paramedic so I thought it'd be a good way to try seeing if I'd

01:10love being a first responder without the commitment of four years of uni. Ended up loving CFA, hated uni

01:18so here I am. I actually wasn't going to come down but a friend that was in the brigade asked me to

01:25come down and I haven't left. I would come down to the training days and put on some gear and then

01:33one day I said you know what I can do this. They were just so friendly and welcoming and not

01:39judgmental and it was just so comfortable. Having a good bunch of blokes around you and and some

01:46females now and and just it's it's a good brigade and that's that's why I wanted to become captain

01:52uh this is such a good brigade and team just gets and it gets it done. That's what you want to do

01:58and be a fiery it can be very rewarding there's nice to be able to give back to to the community.

02:04That's very rewarding you know not only with the the incidents and that that I attend but also just

02:08being part of the community um just seeing you know when we do our Christmas runs it um at the

02:13end of the year getting on the truck just to look delight in kids faces and families and

02:17we're fortunate in you know kids seeing a red truck with lights and sirens they just love it.

02:22Been in the surf a uh 45 years. I certainly remember Ash Wednesday you know coming into

02:29Macedon which was just burnt out cars and shops in the main street. I have a very strong memory of that.

02:37I was here for Black Saturday that was pretty intense time.

02:40That was that was different. That was um an eye-opener.

02:50Black Saturday is one of the first thing I've ever experienced and hopefully the last thing I want to

02:56experience like that.

03:02There was fires uh there was house fires going and just smoke and members of the public not wanting to

03:07leave the property and and we had to try and convince them to leave.

03:11I just got qualified right on that 2019 2020 bushfires so it was literally initiation by fire.

03:24The wind and how it's going on so quickly. Unreal.

03:28You always think yourself geez I hope I don't know that first or I hope they're all right. Is there

03:37anyone in the house? The adrenaline kicks in and yeah yeah and training kicks in you just

03:43you know what to do. I know I'm sorry because all the all the training that we've had. And we just

03:48did it because we yeah because once he said it we knew.

03:51So when you're on the truck who's in charge?

04:00Now you see his captain he's.

04:03Is there an adjustment period there?

04:04It was a little bit of adjustment period there when he was just this high. Started off for now.

04:10No we have a bit of a uh a bit of a banter going on here but um yeah that's he's very reliable so I

04:16can get into uh at short notice. Dad can you help me out with this thing and he'll come down give me

04:22a hand. Break it on right? Yeah. Definitely give it a go like it can be scary um but if you get into

04:28the right community it will definitely make you grow as a person and it's exit all worth it.

04:34I think it's given me a lot of confidence in my late age. If I didn't have to have a day job I'd

04:39probably be here more often. I'll just feel like I'm part of the family.

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