Thank you for volunteering

As a proud member of Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV), I would like to take the opportunity during National Volunteer Week to thank our district’s volunteer CFA firefighters and those that support them.

The CFA has around 60,000 skilled volunteers that give their time for the good of Victorian communities on a 24/7 basis.

Our district, District 9, is extremely diverse and stretches from Longwarry in the west to Erica in the north-east and south to Inverloch and Foster.

It comprises 43 brigades that have numerous specialist response capacities including road accident rescue, hazardous materials response and even one coast guard brigade being Port Welshpool.

All brigades are completely volunteer based and these volunteers are ably supported by our paid District 9 headquarters staff. Our volunteers are highly trained to professional, nationally recognised standards.

While last summer was relatively quiet, Victoria remains one of the most fire prone areas in the world. This means the CFA needs to maintain a huge surge capacity to provide skilled resources, like ours, to combat Victoria’s multiple and large incidents when and where they occur.

Our firefighters are not only on call to support the local community but can be responded to emergencies elsewhere in the state or even interstate. District 9 volunteers were some of the first to respond to the Hazelwood Mine fire and were flown interstate to assist in Tasmania and Western Australia in recent years.

I would like to sincerely thank our volunteers’ families and employers. Volunteers responding at any time often places a strain on those left behind. Your support is much appreciated.

CFA volunteering is much more than firefighting. It is about community spirit and resilience and portrays the essence of our social fabric.

Thank you to our entire district’s CFA and other volunteers, and to those that support them.

Brian Brewer, District 9 president VFBV