Some CFA volunteers serve the community in their day job as well as in their spare time. The captain of Warragul Fire Brigade, Brian Dalrymple, is also a police officer.
“There’s definitely a benefit from being both a CFA volunteer and a police officer. Lots of pros,” said Brian Dalrymple, captain of Warragul Fire brigade for the past three years and a senior constable at Trafalgar.
“Trafalgar’s response zone is fairly rural. It includes Trafalgar, Yarragon, Willow Grove and Thorpdale, and some smaller communities. Many people in these areas are CFA members, so I have a fair bit of credibility with the community because of my involvement with CFA.”
Brian recognises that CFA believes in doing effective community engagement, and he’s adopted that attitude in his police work.
“I stop and talk to kids on the street and do kinder visits,” he said, “I go to a local primary school once a month to engage with kids. I talk to them about laws, bike safety, stranger danger, littering and respectful behaviour.”
Brian is also passing on crucial CFA knowledge to his police colleagues at Warragul and Trafalgar, as well as Highway Patrol and officers from two smaller stations.
“Police don’t have much training in wildfires, so every year at the start of the fire season I run several wildfire awareness sessions at Warragul Police Station for police officers in the area.
“It’s important for police officers doing traffic management points to know about hazardous trees, so I also ran a hazardous trees session which ended with a detailed discussion.
At Warragul brigade, Brian has a committed management team with many skills.
“I’ve got a strong brigade with five lieutenants who have enough experience to handle anything and everything,” Brian said. “A major highway runs through our police response zone and there are many regional and rural roads, which means there are quite a few serious accidents.
"In these areas, CFA is often the first agency on scene. I know CFA is not just about fighting fires; at an accident we can provide first-aid, use a defibrillator, set up traffic control, anything really.
“You can ask a CFA volunteer to do pretty much anything and they’ll have a go.”