Firefighters

[Andraax]

SES for about 8 years - though the government give them sum money it is only about 3-4% of there operating costs.

One thing though is you don't do something you are not comfortable with - being near bodies a problem for you? Then you don't do those jobs.

Even is you only want to provide welfare (food) for teams in the field it is greatly appretiated - and I will take my hat of to McDonalds in the Frankston area (all of them) who regularly provided us with lots of food free of charge. Believe me having been in wet overalls and climbing roofs for 8 hours a cold cheese burger and luke warm coffee deliverd to you in the field is heaven on earth!

[DanP]

As one of the services who uses and abuses the CFA's, SES's, Ambo's etc on a regular basis, I would like to say thanks. Rarely do we get the chance to say it at a job.

On the donation theme, a lot of areas now have IGA supermarkets with a community benefits scheme. Put your local CFA, SES etc as the beneficiary and shop there. Have all your mates do the same. Our CFA had a couple of thou raised for them last year in a community of about 5000. Imagine what you could do in a place like Frankston or Dandenong.

Get on board you lot. Remember, these guys don't only save your house, they cut your loved ones out of cars at accidents, get your cat out of the tree, get pushed from pillar to post by the coppers and they do it all for FREE.

I had to pity the local boys on NYE and NYD, it was a TFB day and about twenty odd call outs right through the night.

Dan

[journeyman Mick]

Wongo
Thanks , I'll take that as a thank you for my efforts . Been to about 20 fires this last season , but it's started raining, not a proper "WET" yet, but enough in our area that fire isn't a real worry any more . I'm the only officer and one of the few members that works in our area, most people work down the hill in Cairns at least 40 minutes drive away. I also live and work within a few hundred metres of our shed, consequently I go to most of the fires.

Jake,
good on you and hang in there, but believe me, you don't want to be paid. I've lost a lot of time and money this season responding to fires (and a few false alarms) but if they were to pay us I wouldn't be in it at all. Why?
1) The pay wouldn't be enough, it certainly wouldn't come close to what I charge for my time.
2)As a volunteer if I don't want to go/decide I've had enough/decide that the person in charge is a wally/believe that any orders place myself or my crew in danger I go home and there's nothing anybody can do about it.

As a paid employee of an emergency service there would be major repercussions if I withdrew my services (ie strike or walk out). I've been to a few incidents/heard incidents on the radio/read transcripts of logs/been to debriefs which lead me to conclude that where bushfires are under the control of urban brigades (because they're in an urban levy area) that decisions are made that are not the best in the circumstances. The reasons are varied: training/habits/culture (paid "proffesional" vs unpaid "amateur")/mindset/egos. A few incidents got me so riled up that I rang the assistant commisioner for urban brigades for this region to demand some answers:mad: . Of course I couldn't get through so I wrote him a letter with 108 questions in it and c.c'd it to a whole heap of politicians . Resulted in him getting it all investigated quite seriously. Still waiting on the final outcomes but have seen some improvements already. Now imagine if I was a paid employee, even if only part-time. I doubt it would have gone as far as it has.

BTW, don't know how it works elsewhere but in QLD we elect our officers. So unless you have a whole brigade of idiots then someone like the mad driver you mention certainly wouldn't get re-elected

Dan,
no-one pushes this little black duck around from pillar to post!

Mick the militant volunteer fire-ee