The work that Fire and Rescue NSW officers do can be dangerous, but the rewards include a deep sense of purpose only those who risk their lives in the service of others may know. 2515 reports.

The retained firefighters of Fire and Rescue NSW Station 461 Thirroul are an easy-going mob. There’s a casual jocularity between them as they greet each other and interact during our photo-shoot for this month’s cover feature. But it’s easy to see that they’re able to switch on at the drop of a hat for their high-risk work. After all, they’re employed in what can be a very dangerous job: running into unpredictable, truly volatile emergency situations that may have the potential to destroy property or, worse still, lives.

“Retained Firefighters are not rostered on duty at the station but employed to respond to emergency incidents when notified by pager or mobile phone call”, FRNSW states, so generally there’s enough flexibility built into their other job to free them up to have some weekday daytime availability to respond to emergency calls.

Applicants must also reside near their fire station to be considered for employment.

FRNSW officers have to deal with a wide variety of emergencies – car accidents, chemical spills and natural disasters, among others – as well as help to educate the public on how they can best deal with an emergency themselves.

FRNSW is “one of the world’s largest urban fire and rescue services” according to the organisation itself. It has a long, proud history of service and its officers have a deep sense of camaraderie forged, sometimes literally, in fire.

Two of Thirroul station’s longest-serving firefighters can attest to that because they’ve known each other for much of their four decades with FRNSW: Captain Hedley Privett, has 43 years in the job and Ian Hamilton clocked up 45 years as a retained firefighter before he decided to retire in October this year.

FRNSW officials were scheduled to present Ian with a certificate of service on December 5.

Hedley and Ian kindly took time out of their busy weekend to answer 2515’s questions.

You’ve both been fighting fires for a long time, you must have a stack of stories about mateship. 

Hedley: In the early days, a lot of people didn’t move, they didn’t change jobs – and up until recently, the last few years, the crew was roughly the same. You went to calls together, you turned out together, you went away together on task force [different teams with specialist skills] and things like that. 

So, camaraderie is really strong in Fire and Rescue ... and Ian’s always been a troublemaker?

Hedley: Never! [laughs] If there was a call down the coast on the tanker during the fire season … anywhere the tanker would go, Ian would be off on it. Down the coast for the day or for a few hours. 

So you two blokes have known each other for years?

Hedley: Ian joined two years in front of me: he joined in ’75 and I joined in 1977. 

So, it’s been a few years.

Ian: Things were different then: there’s a phone out the front here, and people could turn up and call in a fire. 

Things have changed.

Ian: Now, it’s tele-printers and pagers and mobile phone calls.

Now you have iPads and ...

Hedley: The MDTs [mobile data terminals] in the trucks, thermal imaging cameras – that’s all remarkable stuff.

Ian: Aim a thermal imaging camera up into somebody’s ceiling and check if there’s any hotspots.

Does all the high-tech gear make the job easier? 

Hedley: It’s another tool in making sure the fire
is out. 

Why do the job? Do you just like serving the community?

Hedley: It’s a community thing.

Ian: Yeah, surf club and fire brigade. I’ve been in the surf club all my life too. 

Does any one call-out or fire stand out over the years?

Hedley: The variety of fires… well, Thirroul Leagues Club, the old leagues club, it was a massive fire, also there were fires in a couple of furniture places in Wollongong.

There have been other fires [that stand out] like the Bulli high school fire.

Ian: That was one of my first big ones, Bulli high school, in ’75.

Hedley: But there have been really good times: demos, Ian used to be in the demo team as well, so you go away and compete against other brigades, using different skills, doing different events.

Ian: There have been some very interesting times. To start with, we just put fires out, but then it came to rescues.

Hedley: Well, that’s what it says on the side of the truck: protect the environment, hazmat [hazardous materials], natural disasters, wind damage, floods – we do the whole lot! That’s why it’s now called ‘fire plus rescue’ – it’s everything.

We do rescues – parrots in trees, for example. There was a $25,000 Macaw stuck up a tree one day, up near Thirroul school. We got the hose and just kept wetting it and finally it fell out of the tree and it never hurt itself – it was quite high in this tree – and the owner got his bird back. [laughs]

What have been the most beneficial changes to FRNSW? 

Hedley: Equipment, probably. But clothing,
as I said earlier: it’s heavier and it’s hotter but it protects you more. 

So, improvements to the brigade in the way you put fires out, technology, how [fire] trucks are designed, everything’s changed, and for the better.

You’ve got to keep on top of things all the time.
It keeps you keen and keeps people interested and your knowledge improves all the time.

As technology improves, your knowledge is improving and what you can do and how you can put fires out. 

It’s a tough job. What are some of your happiest memories? 

Hedley: The fact you can put a fire out quickly and you’re saving someone’s property or the house is not as badly burnt as it could have been. It could be a car or a kitchen or a house or whatever. 

Or you’ve gone and taken a tree off someone’s house in a wind storm. Or in a flood you’ve gone in and helped them carry all this stuff out to save it from getting ruined.

As I said, with the amount of stuff we do these days, with the different types of fires and incidents, we do basically everything. 

Ian, you retired in October. Do you miss the job?

Ian: Yeah, definitely, I miss it. There’s highs and lows. There’s a lot of adrenaline as you’re approaching a situation.

On the other hand, we were down at west Nowra, up the Shoalhaven River, Arthur Boyd had a big gallery up there, there were millions of dollars worth of paintings stored up there and we were tasked to protect them. The fire was expected to jump the river, and we were down there for a couple of days. The fire didn’t get to us, so we just sat back and waited and had a look at all his paintings [laughs].

Hedley: Yeah, sometimes you just have to sit around and wait, and that’s the disappointing part of it [the job] is you’re sitting around and you’re waiting for these things that are expected to happen. The good side of it is they don’t happen.

Fire and Rescue NSW Station 461 Thirroul: phone (02) 4267 2222, follow @frnsw461thirroul on Facebook