Regional recruits wanted for CFA

A VOLUNTEER recruitment campaign by the CFA is underway and aims to increase member numbers in regional areas for both firefighting and support roles.

Kim Marini the manager of volunteer sustainability for the northwest Victoria region of the CFA, which includes the Greater Bendigo Region, said there were plenty of positions to fill.

“There’s a range of roles from operational, which is the firefighting side of things to support roles,” she said.

“These include community safety roles, administrative roles as well as radio officer operators and comms positions.”

Ms Marini said there is something for everyone at the CFA no matter their working situation and volunteers are important to the organisation’s ability to help the community.

“It’s very diverse the people that get involved,” she said. “Whether they’ve got short periods of time to spare or whether they’ve got lots of time on their hands.

“Volunteers are our lifeblood. All our CFA brigades are now made up of volunteer members. Without them, we don’t have the on-the-ground support to help and protect the community.”

This was a sentiment shared by Heathcote CFA volunteer firefighter Peter Duncan who said members had to be prepared at any moment for a call-out.

“Whenever the pager goes off, we’re relying upon local volunteers to drop what they’re doing,” he said. “Whether they’re working, at their own business, retired or shift workers.”

Mr Duncan said the CFA could be called upon to help in several different situations.

“We have between about 80 and 120 jobs a year,” he said. “Some of those are serious and take a couple of days, some are false alarms, but you’ve still got to leave what you’re doing and get to the station.

“Around here it’s mostly grass fires, it’s open country with grass fires running with the wind. We also get structure fires or house fires, which thankfully are rare.

“We’re directly wired into the hospital, if the smoke alarms go off there, we get called immediately.”

Being a CFA volunteer is a very rewarding experience said Mr Duncan, on a couple of different levels.

“You get an enormous amount out of it,” he said. “There are the superficial things like training, so you get to increase your skills.

“But the bigger and better part is obviously being part of the community and helping others.”

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer for the CFA head to bit.ly/42BSsrx to sign up or even pop down Mr Duncan said.

“Come down to training,” he said. “We’ll show you around and explain what we do. Whether you’d like to be on the fire line or whether you think you’d be more valuable in the office we’ll find a spot for you.”