Firey did it all in his 41 years on job
AFTER more than 41 years serving his community, Gold Coast firefighter Karl Slade has hung up his helmet for the final time.
At 61, the grandfather of five says it was “the right time” to step aside and will now turn his focus to spending more time with loved ones including partner Marie.
He spent more than a third of his life involved with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services – the duty to protect and serve runs in his blood.
Mr Slade, a self-described “Fire Brigade Brat”, first fell in love with the job thanks to his father’s lifelong commitment to the service.
“My dad joined in 1969, so I grew up basically for 11 and 12 years seeing that, and then in 1979 I applied, and I got it in 1980,” he said.
“I can still do the job, but I’d rather go out on my terms.”
Mr Slade, whose final role was station officer at Burleigh Heads, was one of the first on the scene at a house fire at Currumbin Valley this week. Last week, he saved a baby plover from a drain.
“It’s a different job, every day and every night you never know what you’re going to get,” said Mr Slade, who revealed he learned this after attending his first big blaze as a young man.
“My first big fire I had was about halfway through 1980 when the Bavarian Steak House fire at Surfers Paradise was burning.
“It was on a Sunday afternoon, and I remember driving over the Sundale bridge and all I could see was this big black mushroom cloud over Surfers.”
“I think I actually said the f-word, like ‘holy s--t’. I’d been to a couple of small fires but that was a big one.
“It’s a unique job in that
there’s no hard and fast rules, there’s so many things that can happen.”
Not one to make a fuss of himself, the humble man was farewelled in ceremony on Friday.
“The bottom line is: Just generally in firefighting, when we’re busy or we’ve got a lot of work to do that means someone has lost something – either their house has burned down or it’s in danger, someone’s critically injured or there’s a fatality,” Mr Slade said.
“You’d rather not be busy
or have to do stuff because it’s normally grief, loss or tragedy that is the result of your work.”
Nonetheless he said helping those in need was what continued to drive his sense of passion for the job – despite it sometimes being thankless.
“All I would say to upand-coming firefighters is to listen to your superiors,” he said. “No matter how much you many have been taught or studied, there are just some things you don’t know.”