Chris Puschak is treasurer for the ACT Rural Fire Service (RFSACT). Photo: James Coleman.
Chris Puschak was driving back from Victoria in late 2019 when he saw the black plume of smoke rising from the ACT.
“I thought, ‘Jeez, that’s moving fast’. Driving all the way to Canberra, I was just thinking about how it will keep going for quite some time. The conditions were really dry, the weather was hot, the wind was quite strong.”
Sure enough, a few weeks later, he was in the thick of the action, helping to battle the worst blaze to ravage the south-east of Australia in a generation’s memory – at the fire front.
“I was on the first ACT team to drive up to Nerriga when the fire hit that area and driving into that, it was one of the few times I saw this big black smoke cloud on the horizon and thought, ‘Why are we driving towards it?'”
Chris has been a volunteer with the ACT Rural Fire Service (ACTRFS) for eight years after joining in 2017. And while he’s getting to the point where “my body is sometimes letting me down”, he’s urging others to consider helping out in any way they can.
The ACT Rural Fire Service (ACTRFS) and ACT State Emergency Service (ACTSES) are looking for up to 130 new volunteers to join their ranks and will be holding their annual information day in Mitchell for members of the public to find out what it’s all about.
“The ACTRFS and ACTSES are looking for community-minded people from all walks of life who are ready to learn new skills and become part of emergency services in the ACT,” the ACT Emergency Services Agency said in a statement.
“Closely cooperating with other emergency services across the ACT, the ACTRFS and ACTSES are essential to emergency preparedness, response and recovery; without volunteers, these services would not exist.”
The information session will be held at the ACTRFS station in Mitchell. Photo: James Coleman.
Born in South Australia and raised on the eastern side of Melbourne, near the Dandenong Ranges, one of Chris’ earliest brushes with firefighters was whenever the bell would ring out across the suburb from the area’s station.
“Seeing the butcher, the post-office master, and all the shop owners running from their shops to the fire station – I thought that was pretty cool as a kid,” he says.
Chris was 12 years old when the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires tore through Victoria and South Australia, and while his family was not ordered to evacuate, they left their house for a night and moved further into suburbia.
“I remember the orange sky at night, and the thick smoke in the air,” he says.
A map showing the spread of the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires. Photo: Screenshot, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
Later, as an adult, Chris moved to the other side of Melbourne, near the Macedon Ranges, to work as an accountant when he heard that siren again. And again. In one night.
“It wailed for three minutes. It stopped. It went on for another three minutes and stopped again. So the very next day, I was driving past the station and pulled in to ask them what the siren was about … and they said they’d had difficulty finding emergency services volunteers in a lot of rural areas.”
Chris signed up then and there and has never looked back.
“I had a really fulfilling time for those 10 years in leadership roles and helping to grow the brigade.”
After moving to Canberra, he joined the RFS in 2011 and has since used his accountancy background to become the organisation’s treasurer.
“That’s one of the hallmarks – you can come from any walk of life, and you’re working alongside people from all professions – students as well – all different ages, and yet everybody gets the same training,” he says.
“It’s not a mandatory requirement that you turn up every time you get called, and some years, you only got out on a truck to an active fire maybe five or 10 times a year.”
Chris Puschak spent most of his life around Melbourne before moving to Canberra in 2007. Photo: James Coleman.
One thing that’s struck Chris over the years is seeing the “resilience of people”.
“It’s amazing when you go into communities and whole towns not necessarily greet you at the doorstep, but when we turn up at the fire shed to help defend their town, the next thing you see is people bringing food and drinks and setting up whole kitchens to look after us,” he says.
“In some of the places I’ve been to, accommodation is being set up, and people are saying, ‘Don’t worry about anything; we’ll look after you.’ It’s amazing.”
The information day will be held at the station at 3/9 Sandford Street, Mitchell, on Saturday, 1 March, from 11 am to 3 pm. Visit the ACT ESA website for more information or to register. Applications are open until 8 March.
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