CFA brigade membership information session

THE combined CFA Fire Brigades in the Triangle area (Buxton, Marysville, Narbethong and Taggerty) are currently recruiting for new operational members. A brigade membership information session will take place at the Buxton Memorial Hall on the morning of Sunday, April 24 from 10am to noon.

Each brigade is currently in need of additional members. While the main focus is on people able to become operational firefighters, there are a range of roles available to people who are interested in assisting their local brigades other than becoming a firefighter. Members from each of the Triangle brigades will be available to talk to people interested in becoming a member.

Initially, members train as bushfire firefighters and then progress to defensive structural firefighters and potentially internal structural firefighters. Members can also undertake specialist training in a wide range of areas including incident management, peer support, aircraft operations and driver education, to name just a few specialist skills.

All training is provided, at no cost to the member, by professionally trained members delivering training based on modules from the nationally accredited Public Safety Training Package.

The initial bushfire training package is now undertaken in a range of flexible delivery modes including face-to-face learning, virtual classroom delivery and self-paced on-line learning. This complements training on basic bushfire firefighting skills delivered at the local fire station by specialist local trainers. In fact, a new member who lives outside the local area is able to undertake training at any CFA station convenient to their home or work locations.

There is no requirement to actually reside in the local area to be a CFA member. The only stipulation is that a person is reasonably available to the brigade they respond with. This might mean the person isn’t part of the initial response of a brigade but can assist with longer term incidents or can assist with other duties when they are available.

The four brigades work closely together and a number of members respond with multiple brigades depending on their situation and location. Some people respond with another brigade during the day because they work closer to that brigade. Brigades are also interested in talking to current CFA members who work in or regularly visit the Triangle and may be available to respond with one of the brigades.

Taggerty Captain Tom Goldstraw said, “Each of the brigades in the Triangle are keen to talk to people who own recreational properties and might be able assist the brigade whenever they are at their property.”

Tom explained that Buxton Fire Brigade, as an example, already had a small number of members who reside in Melbourne but are members at Buxton and they assist the brigade whenever they are at their local property. This helps provide some respite to full-time residents who cover brigade responses during the week.

Each of the brigades are looking for new members who are able to respond during the week but are also interested in talking to people who might only be available to respond during specific times or parts of the year.

In addition to providing an opportunity to talk to members of the local brigades, the information session will also include a home fire safety display and an opportunity to talk to members on how to prepare your property ahead of next summer.

A series of training sessions on how to use a fire blanket will be provided throughout the morning. A free fire blanket and smoke alarm will be provided to people who take part in a fire blanket training session on the morning.

A free sausage sizzle will be available throughout the morning.