Every year, thousands of volunteer fire fighters give up their free time and risk their lives to help their follow citizens. Australia’s leading bush fire-fighting company, Australian Pump Industries, decided to find out what makes a fire fighting volunteer tick!
The company launched a program to pull entries from volunteer brigades in Victoria with a view to letting them have their say about what makes them put themselves in the line of fire!
According to the “State of the Climate 2018” report, there has been a long term increase in Australian fire conditions and the length of bushfire seasons. This has been a constant trend since the 1950’s and there’s no denying the fact.
The concept of volunteer fire fighting appears to be almost unique to Australia. The idea that citizens, most of whom already have a full time job, give up their leisure time with family and friends, to train and educate people and raise funds. Then in emergency situations, they don their gear and report for duty within community that needs them most!
CFA VOLUNTEERS RESPOND
“We started with the CFA in Victoria because we know they have 50,000 volunteers and that is a mighty force”, said Aussie Pumps’ Brad Farrugia.
Aussie Pumps builds high pressure firefighting pumps used by farmers and home owners to protect their property. They’ve supplied hundreds of pumps to the National Parks and Wildlife Service and to the Rural Fire Service in NSW.
The company believes if the volunteers are going to have to put themselves at risk they should have the best equipment, and get the credit they deserve!
“The more we get to understand the volunteers and the people who give up their free time, the more we realise what a huge debt we have. We appreciate the over selfless men and women who protect the lives and properties of others”, said Farrugia.
THE RESPONSE
Here are some samples of the great responses the company received. This is from Craig Warren from Wallington Fire Station. He said a lot with his short sharp comment about volunteers giving up their time. Our question was, what motivates a volunteer to join?”
“The only reward is feeling good about yourself by helping others”.
Carol Brislane from Anakie Fire Brigade came up with a good short sharp point.
“I hope that I may inspire others to join”.
The company was flooded with entries but Christmas Hills Fire Brigade won the prize of an Aussie Fire Red Brigade Fire Captain high pressure fire fighting pump, based on this very lyrical entry from Liz Mildenhall.
“Motivated to learn about fire behaviour and suppression after the devastating Black Saturday bushfires, we women joined the Christmas Hills Brigade. Ten years later with more knowledge and skills under our belts we feel our efforts are valued, enjoy the team work and feel safer living in our beautiful bush.”
Christmas Hills typically has a history of active women fire fighters going back to the 1970’s. Several of the female members are officers and hold important roles within the brigade. The brigade often fields and all female crew!
Aussie Pump distributors around the country are getting behind this “APPRECIATE THE FIRIE VOLUNTEERS” campaign and doing their bit to help out.
BUSHFIRE SURVIVAL GUIDE
Tens of thousands of Aussie’s Bushfire Survival Guide are going out into the market, free of charge to help people prepare for the worst. The guide helps to protect property, livestock, crops and human life!
