For Darkes Forest Rural Fire Brigade captain Peter Field, fighting fires is a family affair. There are 25 members in his brigade and he’s related to nine of them. This includes his wife, Lisa, the couple’s four children, Nick, Josh, Layla and Olivia, plus three of their partners.
The station is often a home away from home for the Field family, with afternoons and weekends busy with Rural Fire Service commitments. But when the Black Summer bushfires began in September 2019, the family splintered, sent to different fire fronts around the state.
“Doing the work in the 19/20 fires was very memorable, but it’s almost a blur,” Peter said.
“I didn’t see half of my family for five months – they were fighting fires, I was fighting fires.
“On New Year’s Eve in 2020, I think I was at a fire with my son in Nowra; Layla was at a fire with Lisa in Cooma. We were all over the place.
“Sometimes you think about it, or you see a picture, and it gives you a bit of the chills.”
For their firefighting during that time, four members of the Field family were awarded the National Emergency Medal. Four awards in one family in one season is believed to be a NSW RFS record.
“I’m pretty lucky to have that and pretty proud [that] they all love it,” Peter said.
“The proud moments come later – they don’t come on the fire ground, they come later.
“I don’t treat them like my family out there because I treat everybody fairly and evenly. I don’t give many favours – they’ve actually got to work harder.”
Peter began volunteering with the Darkes Forest brigade 22 years ago, under the leadership of Glenbernie Orchard owner Glenn Fahey, when the service was “downright old school”. With little more than a truck and a shed, the brigade was heavily reliant on the supplies across the road, often using the orchard’s tools, their fuel, their washing equipment.
“What Glenn did was just unbelievably fantastic… it was a very little brigade and, basically, his orchard was part of the brigade,” Peter said.
“It’s very much the grassroots of how rural fire brigades work.”
Before Glenn stepped aside as brigade captain after two decades in the role, he mentored Peter through the ranks. Peter became a deputy captain, then senior deputy captain and captain in 2015.
One of the major hurdles from the get-go was maintaining an active membership. Out in rural Darkes Forest, the brigade had long struggled to attract out-of-area volunteers.
So, Peter changed their approach, calling on members to strike up friendships, take turns performing different duties and draw upon their occupational skill sets to form more adept, tight-knit teams.
“We’re forever looking outside the box… because to get [volunteers] out here, I’ve got to do something different,” Peter said.
“Whether it’s just that rural atmosphere or the big open grounds that we’ve got, or the idiot running the brigade or whatever it may be, the mix of members that we’ve got – something attracts them to here and they come here.
“I’ve got people now in our membership from as far away as Keiraville – that’s about as far as we go [south] – to Appin, right up into the Shire, Helensburgh, Stanwell Park.”
Peter would encourage anyone thinking about volunteering to contact the team at Darkes Forest.
“I love what I do,” he said.
“So just go and meet the members… have a chat to them and see how it is. There’s lots of opportunities here – [the RFS] take anybody … if you’ve got a good heart and you’re trustworthy, even a bit rough around the edges, like me.
“People in the RFS are strange people – they’re lovely people – but they’re strange, because who would want to go and volunteer all these hours, get smoky, potentially risk their life to save somebody else. You’ve got to be a weirdo to do that. But they’re the best.”
To volunteer, visit www.rfs.nsw.gov.au
