CFA reaps volunteer spike in wake of Black Saturday

Andrew Mathieson
VOLUNTEERS are jumping aboard the region’s fire trucks in the wake of Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires disaster.
The region’s 47 CFA brigades have recorded a 70 per cent spike in new volunteer firefighters this year, up from 88 recruits in the previous 12 months to 150.
Region 7 Geelong acting operations manager David Harrison said the latest figures reflected community empathy for victims of Black Saturday.
“There’s definitely a raised community awareness at the moment with regards to fire danger, largely as a result of, I would expect, those tragic events on February 7,” Mr Harrison said.
Sharp rises in membership were a consistent response to fire tragedies close to home, he said.
An example was the increase after the 2006 Anakie fires, which devastated property and livestock north of Geelong.
Mr Harrison attributed the Anakie surge to helping the region escape bushfire disasters last summer.
“We’re thankful for that and pat the community on the back,” he said.
Last year the Independent reported falling CFA memberships across the region, with country town brigades like Portarlington suffering the most.
New Leopold volunteer Dave Foreman, 24, said his fear about the impact of bushfires on the region’s small towns prompted him to join the CFA after relocating from Northern Territory three years ago.
“I’d been thinking about volunteering for a while but wasn’t too sure whether it should be the SES or CFA,” Mr Foreman said.
“But Black Saturday gave me a bit of a push in the right direction.”