Toora CFA’s Get Fire Ready event attracted a steady stream of attendees last Saturday. After nearly a week of non stop rain, the sun was a welcome addition to the free sausage sizzle and a tour of the extremely well appointed Toora CFA headquarters.
Tim Wright, Toora CFA Captain said, “These events are important to raise awareness that the fire season is coming. Our fire danger period will likely start at the end of the month and events like this morning gets it in people's minds that the fire season is coming.”
South Gippsland has not sustained a catastrophic event since Black Sunday of 1926 when fires swept across south eastern Victoria, coming close to the towns of Foster and Yarram.
“You can’t really predict what’s going to happen and we do live in a relatively high risk area, especially those residents who do live up in the hills.
“Just because it hasn’t happened lately doesn’t mean people should ignore the fact it could, so they just need to be prepared”, reiterated Tim.
The Toora CFA brigade’s HQ, built in 2009, is a staggeringly well equipped station for a small town.
“We are blessed”, said Tim but he was quick to point out, “We’re always looking for new members. We have 18 and 20 year old members right through to people well into their retirement years.
“But we could always do with more. People come and go due to other life commitments so it’s always good to get new faces in”.
The camaraderie on show was palpable at the event. Members all seemed to get along well.
“I love it”, said two year veteran Rob Teskey. “Tim's a really inclusive captain, he leads without being bossy and is accepting of everyone’s different capacity to commit. I’d had cancer and when I got through that, I thought I’d be too old to join the CFA but Tim was very encouraging.
Rob continued, “We all need to keep up a decent fitness level and Tim is very sensitive about how he goes about encouraging us to look after ourselves. After all, if your colleagues are constantly thinking about how you're coping, that’s no good when you’re out fighting fires.” David Barrett
