Our local fire station is throwing up its doors this Saturday, May 19 from 10am to 2pm for its annual ‘come and see what we do’ day for budding firefighters young and old.
Fire captain John Gray said to come along for breakfast/brunch/lunch with the firies putting on a sausage sizzle for the occasion. There will be giveaways for the kids and lots of firefighter stuff to play with.
The fire hose will be going (forecast is a sunny day with little wind) for the kids to practise their aim, and the firies encourage exploration of the firefighting vehicles. There may also be some car crunching with the jaws-of-life.
Tenterfield Fire & Rescue is keen to recruit more firefighters to its crew, so the open day is a good opportunity to speak with crew members and find out what’s involved. Cpt Gray said there are currently five positions to be filled, with the organisation keen to welcome new members.
Fortunately there haven’t been too many callouts so far this season to Tenterfield locations although the dangerous winter season looms. The crew has been called out recently to a few Queensland fires (Glen Lyon and Lyra) as a result of closer cross-border liaison.
To avoid setting your own house on fire Cpt Gray recommends that anyone with an open fire gets their flue checked before lighting up, and to have electric blankets checked if it’s been a while since they were looked at.
Ensure that smoke alarms are working properly and, most importantly, adopt the ‘cooking, keep looking’ mentality.
“Don’t put a winter soup on the stove to cook and then walk away and forget it,” Cpt Gray said.
“Unattended cooking is the cause of a lot of house fires. We had a case of someone heating up a frypan of oil to cook sausages and realise they were out of sausages and go to the shop. They returned to find two fire trucks in their front yard.
“It happens.”
