On Saturday the 14th of September, I attended an open day for the Rural Fire Service of Middle Dural. I helped set up, read some of the advice they were giving out, and got to ask some questions to the volunteers.
There was an extremely wide variety of information available for all sorts of people: there were general strategies in the form of clear and simple actions, and there were also more specific pieces of advice for hikers, pet owners (including horses!), landowners and more.
There were many volunteers there that had been working for a very long time, and they told me that there is a position for everyone: those unfit to fight fires can help out in many other ways. And they need more people too. With the changing climate, there is a need for more volunteers
I also came to appreciate just how advanced the fire-fighting system is. They have several categories of vehicles, each specialised in a job, from the great fire trucks that can transport large amounts of water to the smaller cars designed to transport people. Water is also a very complex issue, as well as how it gets to the fire with enough pressure. But of all the fires that happen, you don’t hear of many. And there are a lot. My mother, a volunteer in the RFS, gets a buzz on her phone for every fire in the area. There is no shortage of jobs, but they still manage to get them done.
