15 December 2023

Volunteer firefighters pay the ultimate price, yet we pay them ... nothing

| Sally Hopman
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Bushfire fighter faces wall of flames

A member of the NSW Rural Fire Service faces a wall of flames – “it’s just what you do”, such volunteers will tell you. Photo: NSWRFS.

Another Rural Fire Service volunteer died this week. He was called out to a job – this day it was an “out of control” car fire. But he didn’t go home that night. He suffered a medical episode while fighting the blaze and died at the scene.

He gave his life to protect people and property – people he more than likely had never met, property he’d never seen.

Last month a 75-year-old veteran firefighter, who had racked up 13 years in the RFS, died when a tree fell on him. And just weeks before that, another RFS volunteer died when he, too, suffered a medical episode on the fireground.

Turns out Australia has the largest number of volunteer bushfire fighters in the world. Some are in no-horse towns that aren’t even on the map. They maintain old trucks that would be welcomed into museums, they care for equipment that can’t even remember what a better day looks like. They don’t have a bell or even a whistle, smart (any) uniforms or radios that can pick up something happening on the moon. They go out, the minute they’re called, to fires so fierce that they may never come home, yet they do it.

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Moving to a tiny rural village years ago – and it was ever so many years ago in the days when it was perfectly fine for men to fight the fires and for women to make the sandwiches – I offered to join the brigade.

I’d heard lots of stories about this near-legendary crew, my favourite being when they were so quick to race out to the fire that they forgot to check if there was any water in the tank on the back of the truck. There wasn’t – and the fire burned itself out.

They were an an amazing bunch, these volunteers. Teachers, farmers, public servants, mums, dads, students – everyone had a skill to contribute. Be it coaxing the 1950s Bedford into action when all it wanted to do was remain idle, to knowing the landscape so well that they could predict where the fire was going, perhaps even before the fire knew.

As a volunteer bushfire fighter, I made great sandwiches. What I didn’t learn, as remains the case today, was how not to ask stupid questions – the fact that’s a double negative should have given it away.

Like when the crews come in for their break, I learned quickly, well, OK, not so fast, that you don’t ask them what it’s like out there. You just had to look at their faces, smell their clothes, watch them drink tea as if it were lifeblood. Then you’d know.

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There are days when you wake up and know immediately it’s one of those days. When the hot night has broken into a sultry day, and when the confused wind starts going in every direction.

As we wake up to more of those mornings at this time of year, spare a thought, and as much as you can afford, be it money, time, resources – or just words of support, to these remarkable volunteers.

Ask them why they risk their lives for people they don’t know, and for no financial reward, you’ll likely hear the answer: “that’s just what you do”. Bless ’em.

To help the Rural Fire Service and its volunteers this Christmas, go to their website

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Why have a photo of a NSW RFS and not an ACT RFS. The article is written by the sound of it, by someone who was in the NSW RFS some years ago. I have a son in the ACT RFS who put his life on the line to fight fires in places he has never been to before for people he has never met before. The ACT RFS certainly punches above its weight, with much of its fire fighting outside of the ACT. The ultimate affront was the hyperlink at the end of the article directing the reader to donate to the NSE RFS?

It’s actually worse than many realise. In Victoria (and I’m assuming the ACT and NSW are the same) volunteer brigades also raise truck loads of money to buy … well … trucks; and to help defray the costs of new fire stations when the ancient ones become useless for purpose. I wonder how long governments can continue to abrogate responsibility in this way.

Leonard Skinner10:00 pm 17 Dec 23

ACT is a different beast to NSW and Vic. Given their area is so small there isn’t really an issue with outdated equipment. Brand new trucks, great stations

Leonard Skinner10:11 pm 17 Dec 23

The ACT RFS is in a very different situtation to NSW and VIC in that they only have around 6 volunteer brigades across the Territory so their equipment is all top notch. They dont suffer from aging trucks etc. They are also different in that the CFA and NSW RFS do a lot more than just bushfires like structure fires, mva’s etc.
NSW is definately moving ahead with some great equiptment and their air support is also top notch but still have a lot of aging trucks and pretty ordinary stations especially in regional areas.

Colin Fitzgibbon8:05 am 18 Dec 23

In NSW and ACT, vehicles are a state asset and provided by the Government. Stations in ACT are also government facilities; in NSW its more complicated. Vehicle maintenance also comes out of state budget. Yes, some are long it the tooth, but there’s a programme in place to replace older tankers.

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