By Tyler Wright
Kalorama and Mount Dandenong Fire Brigade held their first open day since 2019 on Sunday 19 June, just over one year since the June storm event which saw CFA members on the ground for several weeks.
With Bell Real Estate providing free coffee and hot drinks to residents and local traders serving cakes and a sausage sizzle for all – around 200 community members gathered at the station on the corner of Ridge Road and Falls Road to exchange words and actions of appreciation and gratitude.
“We haven’t been able to have an open day because of the fact we were in a Covid response at the time,” Kalorama and Mount Dandenong CFA Captain Bill Robinson said.
“We’ve had to wear masks in the station and in the trucks when we were together…it was only a month ago we came out of it,” Bill said.
Just two days after the June event, the Kalorama and Mount Dandenong brigade received help from Dandenong Ranges and Knox Group firefighters, who were joined by those even further out, with Bill telling other brigade captains he needed “bodies on the ground”.
“I need[ed] to be able to do a door knock of the whole area – find out who is in there because we didn’t even know if anybody was still trapped in the houses; we didn’t have communications. We didn’t have phones. We didn’t have NBN,” Bill said.
“Every night for the first four nights we fed approximately 200 people out of our station…we started initially with food that was given to us from the local IGA and then the Salvos and Red Cross got involved and we got pre-cooked meals from them.
“For the next three weeks, until we got the power back on properly, we were going out and providing fuel to some residents, starting their generators, providing wood, one of the guys who came up off the hill (whose name was David), he was providing Red Gum firewood to us and we were taking it to residents’ places on a daily basis so the could stay warm and be comfortable, and we were delivering Salvation Army meals to them as well in the evenings – because some people didn’t have heating.”
“Sassafras Fire Brigade organised a whole heap of generators [on] day two or three, which we ended up handing out to local residents.”
The community spirit was not just felt within the locality with many significant donations, but further out – with Marysville residents gathering $2,000 and two whopping sums of $20,000 and $50,000 coming from individuals wanting to contribute to the brigade’s volunteer work.
Bill said after sharing hopes of upgrading the station’s lighting and toilets and installing automatic doors, donors George and Kaylen were quick to act generously.
Kalorama and Mount Dandenong Fire Brigade Community Relations Officer Chris Gibby said captains and brigade representatives from as far as Scoresby and Boronia attended the meeting in recognition of their work clearing trees from roads and driveways and welfare checks on Kalorama homes last year.
“People [had] amazing stories about how the support they received and how they helped others…there was a slideshow going on in the fire station of debris, damage and people,” Chris said.
With community action after the storm and celebration of efforts far and wide after two years in and out of state lockdowns, captain Bill Robinson said it will be a benefit moving forward.
“It’s brought the community and the fire brigade closer together, which is really, really good. That’s a real positive because [it] means we can now communicate with the locals about other things… we’re going to talk about preparedness for bushfires over the Summer; and that means the locals are actually going to be listening to us because they know we’re there to try and help them,” Bill said.
