Volunteers and Emergency Services stories .

[roddy1960]

Firey's..ambo's , SES , National Parks and cops...Amazing people in a crisis.

Recent bushfires remind us of how important managing lives, property , fauna and flora is to help the guys and gals , lots who are volunteers to fight off something that all Australians face every summer . Some of us have been involved , served or even raised money to help before or after a whole bunch of bushfire emergencies in this vast country of ours . Then of course there are floods , cyclones and other equally destructive incidents .

What's your experiences over the years . Here is two linked vids of the Dunalley- Forcett (Tasman Peninsula) fires in 2013 of a crew on their way to fight that devastating fire . Thankfully there was not the loss of life that might have been but hundreds of homes , businesses , schools and such were lost . Lots of wildlife too of course .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4yP61Jw8fM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyiliha3lqw..

[roKWiz]

Over the years, I've been through so many floods, fires and storms I couldn't list them here but have witnessed some truly heroic acts by voluteers.
2009 NE Vic, fires, 2003 Canberra fires, 1994 Central Coast fires and 2007 Newcastle storms come to mind.
I still can not believe a country like ours has all these self important pollies and Govco bums paying themselves ridiculous salaries while we have so many volunteer emergency services' people risking their lives for us. Also not forgetting wildlife carers.

And to the ones that are paid, city housing for metro Firefighters, Paramedics, Nurses and Police should be heavily subsidized to help keep them close to where they need to work.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Over the years, I've been through so many floods, fires and storms I couldn't list them here but have witnessed some truly heroic acts by voluteers.
2009 NE Vic, fires, 2003 Canberra fires, 1994 Central Coast fires and 2007 Newcastle storms come to mind.
I still can not believe a country like ours has all these self important pollies and Govco bums paying themselves ridiculous salaries while we have so many volunteer emergency services' people risking their lives for us. Also not forgetting wildlife carers.

And to the ones that are paid, city housing for metro Firefighters, Paramedics, Nurses and Police should be heavily subsidized to help keep them close to where they need to work.

Yep , absolutely and to every single one of them in every State and Territory this tribute song sums you up ..A new lyric to a very famous song that could well be our National Anthem ..I reckon anyway ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bySCjV_eZs ...

[Trevor 57]

Did 13 years in the Victoria State Emergency Service, 4 of those as Controller of a local SES Unit

Responded to:
* Road accidents ('jaws of life' stuff)
* Windstorms
* Floods (big time in the 1993 floods)
* Local support to Police, CFA and Ambulance Service

Also did:
* Sat on local DISPLAN committee
* State wide accrediting person for road accident rescue
* Inaugural member of the Peer Support Program (to support members with PTSD) and trainer of same
* Road Accident first aid trainer
* Flood boat trainer
* Portable fire extinguisher trainer
* Attended hours and hours and hours of training, lots at the Aust Counter Disaster College at Mt Macedon Vic

All the credit for this goes to my wife, the mother of our 4 children who gave me the time to do all this while she was at home raising 4 young kids. Whilst Controller I was spending as much time volunteering as I was in my full time job

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

Did 13 years in the Victoria State Emergency Service, 4 of those as Controller of a local SES Unit

Responded to:
* Road accidents ('jaws of life' stuff)
* Windstorms
* Floods (big time in the 1993 floods)
* Local support to Police, CFA and Ambulance Service

Also did:
* Sat on local DISPLAN committee
* State wide accrediting person for road accident rescue
* Inaugural member of the Peer Support Program (to support members with PTSD) and trainer of same
* Road Accident first aid trainer
* Flood boat trainer
* Portable fire extinguisher trainer
* Attended hours and hours and hours of training, lots at the Aust Counter Disaster College at Mt Macedon Vic

All the credit for this goes to my wife, the mother of our 4 children who gave me the time to do all this while she was at home raising 4 young kids. Whilst Controller I was spending as much time volunteering as I was in my full time job

Bottle your blood ...It's priceless and like gold to many . Same with your wife .

This is why Australia is the envy of the world in this regard and sums up mateship as good as any .Thanks..

Two of our Teacher Assistants at work are local S.E.S. crew members . Matt and Craig are both about 40 I guess and carry their pagers all the time and that pager often summons them to attend an incident . Great work from the S.E.S. in every State .

[The Yeti]

Been doing RFS since 89 and retained FRNSW since 2010,

I don’t do it for the recognition, for me it’s stress relief, it’s my way to relax.

Some guys go for a run, some go fishing I do this. I’m proud of what I do and I find it rewarding.

I’ve had some calls that messed me up like the time I was on the internal crew of a house fire the morning after Father’s Day and found the deceased (a grand father). As my dad had died the day before Father’s Day 5 years earlier it was hard not to personalise it.

But this calls are few and far between and then there’s jobs like this one last weekend

https://www.hawkesburygazette.com.au...-fire/?cs=1453

Which was a great save

And then there’s the funny ones where we get called to a strong smell of smoke only to be met by the police and we find a naked dude smashing cones and fapping to internet porn

I love it and when I’m not longer up to the task I know I’ll find it hard to give up

[ford71V8]

Not sure how relaxed I'd be feeling after the naked dude call out

[Junkyard-Dog]

I used to work in a medical call centre. Probably the wildest experience was when a bloke with mental health issues called up threatening to shoot a bunch of people. I ended up talking to him for about half an hour, calming him down and hearing him out. Unfortunately I had to call the cops to do a mental health check up on him. No idea how it ended up.

There's a lot of people that are going through bad times out there.

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

Not sure how relaxed I'd be feeling after the naked dude call out

It’s fever me a story to tell at dinner parties for years

Was hard to keep a straight face though, I was down at the pumper and ask by the station officer to bring the thermal imaging camera up to check around

I climbed the stairs down the hall and through the door only to be confronted with the sight of said nude dude handcuffed with his hands behind his back looking in to space

I asked where he wanted me to check with the TIC, he said no need, he just wanted some one to be able to verify his story

[roddy1960]

So glad it wasn't a real fire though . False alarm is good especially in what you face way too often . .I do some voluntary security call outs at school where I work . We had to do some basic training from the cops on that too on what not to do if in fact there is someone breaking in but that's another story .Not paid but we get a little extra TOIL time if needed .

I've attended a security alarm maybe 50-60 times over the years since the school has had security callout operating and only twice has there been a sign of break in which has necessitated me ringing the cops . Both times the expected 'crims' were a local ratbag family kids .

The funny one was one Saturday night about midnight . I was in the Science Labs and the multiple alarms had been most likely set off by mice but you have to have a quick look anyway .. On the way out the double door rattled and heard voices ..First thought break in because they wouldn't know the light was on from there . I waited to see what happened for a second or two , then laughing ..female voice too .

Turned out to be a couple of not too long out of school all over each other on the way home from a party nestling up against the door . Made sure I made a bit of a racket on my way through the door and they excused themselves as they headed off .. Pretty funny after the initial few seconds ..