Join the CFA – why not?

You get to drive around in big red trucks. You get to mess around in smart yellow uniforms. As part of our training, our trainer set fire to a mini-landscape made of hessian, with matchbox fire trucks chasing the flames to illustrate how fires behave on hills, valleys, the flat. It’s fun. We got given huge black boots with steel caps.

When I got my pager, my eyes filed up with tears.

I didn’t really get that.

On Black Saturday I (and probably everyone) was moved by the CFA’s response to the fires. I organised a concert at the Theatre Royal to raise money for those who had been affected. I wrote a few stories about the CFA in the Castlemaine Mail and the Midland Express, and thought I should join.

Then last winter we had a chimney fire at our house. I looked outside at the roof and we were spouting smoke and sparks in the cold night sky, not quite as spectacularly as that Icelandic volcano, but it was pretty frighteningly spectacular all the same. I asked my wife where our ladder was so I could go and look in the ceiling, but it was at her work.

I dialled 000 and within five minutes we had four trucks in the street and about 20 guys (and some women) stomping around our loungeroom. The response was magnificent. Fortunately all the flue fire did was burn the creosote out of the flue.

Hell, why not join?

There is a weird divide in this town. Maybe it’s real, maybe it’s just there in a lot of people’s heads. Some former councillors point it out, the ‘new arrivals’, the ‘sustainability crowd’, the this, the that, the old residents, the established families. The soccer families, the footy families. The Theatre Royal crowd, the Subway crowd. Those who believe climate change is a threat to the future, those who believe believing in climate change is a threat to the future. Those who eat gelati, those who wear orange ties, whatever.

Honestly, that’s all nonsense. We’re all here because we like the place, and would hate to see it burn down.

Sure, there are some members at the brigade that I wouldn’t first and foremost choose to socialise with. (As there is in any crowd.) There’s one guy who I disliked initially, for his continual swearing and bad attitudes. But I gradually changed my opinion. He stuck the training, he enjoys a laugh, he’s different to me, (doh.)

It’s fun. I’m yet to face a real fire, but we did have a false alarm the other day.

And it’s more than just fun.

More info.

This thing's always been in a bad place, and someone backed into it on Sunday. Be careful if you come up to the station.