At 78, Dixie Fire Brigade volunteer Daryl Crawford is still going strong and helping to keep his community safe.<\/p>\n
After more than 60 years as a CFA volunteer, Mr Crawford can reflect on tough times when he led strike teams during massive local blazes and good times when he helped to save properties and people. Now first lieutenant, Mr Crawford has taken on virtually every role in the brigade and for more than a decade, he and wife Val housed the local fire truck on their Dixie farm.<\/p>\n
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria CEO Adam Barnett said volunteers like Mr Crawford provide the backbone of rural brigades and pass on their knowledge and expertise to the next generation. \u201cVolunteers like Daryl are the heart and soul of their communities and the CFA,\u201d Mr Barnett said. \u201cThey are critical to emergency management in Victoria, especially in country communities where families often continue their commitments through successive generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Crawford joined the brigade at 17. \u201cBack in those days, things were simple,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone was in the fire brigade; farmers had to band together to protect their properties. \u201cThey\u2019d burn the roadsides at night and get us young blokes in to hold the hose and put it out\u2026that\u2019s how we trained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Crawford led crews through the two biggest fires to hit the region over the past 60 years, Ash Wednesday in 1983 and the St Patrick\u2019s Day fires of 2018. Today Dixie is a separate entity, well serviced by a strong band of volunteers, but in 1983 it was combined with the Terang brigade. \u201cWe knew it was going to be a bad day so we were on duty minding the radio at Terang, where our truck was kept at the time,\u201d Daryl said. \u201cThere was a roaring north wind and we knew if a fire started it was going to take off. Normally if we hear there\u2019s a fire, you\u2019ll see smoke coming up, but the wind was so strong that day you didn\u2019t see anything.”<\/p>\n
Mr Crawford has responded to hundreds of fires over the decades, including being on the spot when a windmill spark started a blaze that could have been disastrous on a hot and windy day.<\/p>\n
The St Patricks Day fires in 2018 took the veteran by surprise, even when he responded to a call for a grassfire near the Terang power station. \u201cIt was a windy night but you don\u2019t expect fires to start at night,\u201d he said. \u201cI was driving and we came out of the trees; it looked like Terang was on fire right through to Camperdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went down Depot Road and then the wind swirled and we were in the fire. I hit the accelerator as hard as I could to get the poor buggers out of the flames.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daryl and Val\u2019s farm had hosted the Dixie fire truck for about a decade before the local fire shed was built in 2001. \u201cWe had the best turnout times in the district because we lived with it,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
In 2018 the home was full of locals while the volunteers tackled the fire front. \u201cPeople came here because we\u2019re on a hill,\u201d Mrs Crawford said. \u201cOne woman wanted to go to Warrnambool and I said you\u2019ll die if you go. Another wanted to go to Terang and I said the same thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have power, but one bloke had a 1000-litre pack on the back of his truck so we had water and everyone felt safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fire burnt to the bottom part of the farm. During the night, the Dixie crew twice went to one house to put out a threatening fire. \u201cThe owner later embraced me and had tears in his eyes and called me his hero because I\u2019d helped to save his house,\u201d Mr Crawford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople say why do you do it \u2013 that\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At 78, Dixie Fire Brigade volunteer Daryl Crawford is still going strong and helping to keep his community safe. After more than 60 years as a CFA volunteer, Mr Crawford can reflect on tough times when he led strike teams during massive local blazes and good times when he helped to save properties and people. […]<\/p>\n