By Tyler Wright
The Monbulk Fire Brigade has welcomed two new young firefighters into its ranks, and is encouraging more locals to get involved in its Juniors program.
Alvan and Beau recently passed their final assessment to become fully operational firefighters after completing a four-month CFA General Firefighter course.
The teenagers joined the Monbulk Fire Brigade’s Juniors program six years ago at 11 years of age, and were recently congratulated by the brigade for their efforts.
“I think it’s amazing; they get a real sense of community and it builds them a really good strong network,” Monbulk CFA’s junior coordinator and general firefighter Sarah Kinder said.
“We’ve got people from all walks of life within the brigade; ages, demographics.. it gives them support where they might have some in other areas…I think it gives them some really good tools for general life, not just firefighting…it’s been it’s been great watching Beau and Alvin come up and change,” Ms Kinder said.
The junior program runs for 11 to 16 year olds, with participants getting involved in social activities as well as learning firefighting competencies including fire behaviour and working water pumps.
“We’re a little bit of a different brigade to most local fire brigades…we have a rescue unit and a rope rescue unit as well as firefighting, so they get to experience a little bit of that (under supervision, of course),” Ms Kinder said.
The group is run by senior brigade members on Tuesday nights from 7pm until 8.30pm, with only three young people currently involved in the program.
“We were 12 strong; we had four go up to Seniors, two have going to the Ferntree Gully Brigade…two have come up to our brigade and we have lost a couple over Covid…ao we are looking to build that back up again, because it’s a great little program,” Ms Kinder said.
“We focus on Monbulk mainly, but we have got a couple of kids from surrounding areas that don’t do Juniors…we’ve got one from Silvan and we have a couple that are in between Kallista and Monbulk.”
Those interested in joining the Junior brigade program can visit the CFA website, and brigade members will also be attending the Merry Monbulk Christmas event on Friday 2 December.
