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What does being a member of the CFS involve? It involves responsibility, teamwork, hard-work and rewards. We are all responsible for our equipment being kept in good working order so that it is ready to use 24 hours and day, 7 days a week. We can be called out to any kind of incident at any time. When someone rings the emergency phone number we are instantly responded via a pager and sirens and we have to be ready for anything. All members do regular training and are taught and assessed on all aspects of emergency procedures. We all act as a team, together, and rely on each other to get jobs done. We go to incidents where we work very hard in often very hot (or very cold), dirty (or wet) and exhausting conditions but the satisfaction of having done a job well and having helped someone else are rewards that outweigh the efforts and time that we put in. |
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We are a totally voluntary brigade. None of our members gets paid anything at all for any of the services we provide. Our only payment is the satisfaction of having done a job, served our community and the pride of being a member. |
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How much time do you have to put in? There are no set amounts of time we have to put in as all our input is voluntary. We need to ensure all of our members are kept up-to-date in their training and skills but all have busy lives outside of the CFS. Being a very busy brigade with a very high number of incident callouts a year we ask that our members try and attend a minimum of 50% of training and 30% of callouts, as a guide, but this really depends on the individual's personal, work and family commitments. |
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What do you do when you're not at an incident? Usually if we are not at an incident or a training session we are doing what we normally do each day such as work, study or spend time with our friends and families just like everyone else. Occasionally when conditions look like being quite likely to create an emergency (like a high risk of wildfire, flooding, gale force winds or another brigade may need help) we might be called to our fire-station so that we can respond in the instant we are needed, but this usually only happens on a few days each year. Most of the time we just go about our normal lives and respond to emergencies when people need us. |
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What kind of incidents do you go to? The list of types of incidents we attend seems to grow each year! We go to the usual grass, wild and bush-fires, structure fires (houses, sheds and other buildings) Accident rescues (cars, trains, trucks and buses) Other rescues (children entrapped, injured people) Animal rescues (cats up trees, injured birds, koalas, etc.) Dangerous substance spills (LPG tankers, chemical storage and transport) Storm damage (flooding, un-roofed houses, lightning strikes and trees down) Traffic control (trees across roads, etc.) Fixed alarms (at schools, hospitals, shops and private homes) Mutual Aid (helping out our South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service) and many, many more! We also take part in many community and public events such as the Royal Adelaide Show and our local Christmas parade and spend many hours teaching the community about fire safety and what we do. We have kindergartens, schools and groups in the area visit us to learn about the CFS and how to be safe from fire and other incidents. |
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How do you cope with going to accidents? Accidents can be the most unpleasant and traumatic incidents we go to however they can also be the most rewarding. It's a great feeling to know that your actions saved someone's life and that you really made a difference All of our members get trained in using the hydraulic rescue equipment and learn first aid and to take care of people in emergency situations. We are taught about coping with the stress of trauma and there is plenty of support, help and counseling available should we be confronted with a bad accident scene. Being such a close team, our members also care for each other and watch for signs of stress due to incidents in others, so that we can help each other deal with any problems due to incident stress. Our families and friends are also offered counseling and support at any time. |
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Any emergency incident is potentially dangerous, some more than others. However, by ensuring our members training and skill levels are as high as possible and that all of our equipment is in top working order we reduce the danger to ourselves. By doing things safely and carefully and relying on your team mates to work together and watching out for each other we eliminate as much danger as possible and reduce the risks to everyone. |
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Some incidents can be scary but usually we are so busy getting to work and making sure that we stay safe that we don't have time to think about how scary it is. We need to be thinking clearly and quickly so this is why our training and skills are so important. If we do things correctly and as safely as possible we need not be scared. |
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Each of our members has a pager (beeper) which lets us know when we are needed. When someone rings the emergency phone number the call gets taken by emergency operators who then give us the details on our pager. This all happens extremely quickly to get us on the way as soon as possible. During the hours of 8:00am - 6:00pm we sometimes also use sirens to notify our members of the emergency calls. These old World War 2 sirens sound for just a few seconds but their noise travels for approximately 5 kilometres subject to weather conditions and sometimes due to our steep, hilly terrain can be easier for our members to hear where 'back spots' occur with our paging system. When we get the call we respond from where-ever we are and meet at the fire-station and immediately respond with whichever appliance/s we require depending on the nature of the emergency incident we are going to. All of this happens in the shortest possible time so that we can get to where we are needed in the quickest time. We also travel 'priority 1' which means using sirens and flashing red and blue lights to warn people that we are in a hurry, we always travel safely, but quickly in an emergency. |
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What are the most rewarding parts? Everyone probably has a different answer to this question but most of us would agree - knowing that we made a difference and helped someone else out. Rescues also tend to be rewarding, its always nice to see a job well done and feel the satisfaction of having assisted someone really in need and perhaps having saved their life. Big fires and fires such as house-fires when we manage to 'save' people and their belongings can be rewarding. There's nothing as nice as knowing that all our hard work has been appreciated. Finally, perhaps the biggest reward is being part of a team and having so many great work 'mates' to work alongside. There is a very important social aspect to the Country Fire Service and while this is vital to us performing at our best, as a team, the pride of being a member of this team is very rewarding. |
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There are some 'worst parts', as with any job - attending incidents involving fatalities, going to fires or accidents that could have been prevented with smoke alarms, basic fire safety or simple acts of prevention. So many of our incidents are so easily preventable. Its also frustrating when people put in false 'prank' calls because we give up our time and leave our families to attend these calls and our resources are tied up investigating these pranks when someone really might need us with a real emergency. Its sometimes hard to drag yourself out of your warm cosy bed at 3:00am in the morning to go and attend an incident, but that's what we do, whenever we are needed - we go. Another 'worst part' is when people haven't done simple things like install smoke alarms, done basic fire prevention around their homes or fires have been started by preventable acts like children playing with matches or lit candles unattended or even people smoking in bed. It is everyone's responsibility to know what Acts and Regulations or local council rules regarding lighting of fires apply to them, sometimes a simple phone call can avoid both tragedy and hefty fines! Perhaps 'worst' of all is attending vehicle accidents that have been caused by excessive speeding or alcohol intoxication, so unnecessary and devastating. But for all the 'worst parts' there are many more 'best parts' and the rewards far outweigh the negative things about the job. |
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Our membership numbers are limited and quite often we have a waiting list, however previous experience with an emergency service, availability during daytime hours (shift-workers) can be an advantage to prospective members. Membership is limited to people who can attend a certain amount of training nights, live within a close proximity to the fire-station so that they can respond to callouts with in a short time-frame and have personal attributes such as willingness to work as part of a team, keenness to undertake various training and a commitment to being a member of the CFS and the Eden Hills CFS brigade. Although for full active duties we also require people to be fit and able to perform quite physically demanding fire-fighting duties, there are also auxiliary and communications roles that other people find more suitable to their abilities or preferences. As with any service there are many behind the scenes personnel who although they don't get on the fire-trucks, they are every bit just as much part of the team and without whom we could not function as a service or perform our role. There are positions involving communications, operational support and administration as well as catering all of which are filled by volunteers. If you think that you would be interested in joining, and live in the South Australian suburbs of Eden Hills, Bellevue Heights or Blackwood (postcodes 5050 and 5051) please write to our management committee at:
If you live outside the Eden Hills/Bellevue Heights/Blackwood area but live in an area that is covered by a CFS brigade contact your nearest CFS brigade on their general business phone number or drop in to the fire-station one day. They will gladly answer any questions you have. If you would like
to search for your nearest CFS brigade here's where you can do it online: |
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