Family, friends, and the Fire and Rescue 266 Cootamundra community were all present on April 24 to commemorate three crew members who have accumulated over 30 years of service between them.
Firefighters Samuel Lawson, Jonathan Berryman, and Luke Cram were presented with their 10 year service and good conduct medals from Duty Commander Bruce Dowling, who travelled down from Newcastle for the night.
Firie Samuel Lawson and Luke Cram celebrated 15 and 12 years respectively, and Jonathan Berryman who celebrated 13 years of service said in his speech, that presentation nights are not just about the frontline workers, but an important recognition of their partners too.
“It’s a big thing to have the support of our partners, especially when we get up in the middle of the night,” he highlighted.
“Sometimes we come home to our partners who have no idea that we had just dealt with a fatality.
“They also don’t know where we are going when we just walk out the door at three o’clock in the morning and go to a structural fires. There are dangerous areas that we go to and they [partners] don’t know when we would even get back.”
Mr Berryman was first involved with FNR 266 more than a decade ago, after seeing a need to help his community.
“When I first learnt about the crew here I asked myself, ‘Why aren’t there more people putting their names down for this?’” he recalls.
“Then I realised that I am one of those people so I decided to join to do my part for the community.
“We have a small community here and you need people to be an active part of it.”
During the years Jonathan has been involved with a number of major jobs and said it was his training that allowed him to do his job confidently.
“Training provides you an understanding of what the job is about as well as gaining new skills to set you up being able to handle many different circumstances,” Mr Berryman said.
“Some jobs that we go out to they certainly get your adrenaline going but with the training methods we’ve learnt, it pays off and allows us to perform our tasks efficiently.”
Cootamundra FNR 266 Captain Les Carr said Jonathan was a man that “rarely misses a call” as he very often sets himself “On-call” for most of the time.
Jonathan remembers attending to jobs over the years especially in the middle of the night, and this ranged from a minor smoke alarm going off, to major structural fires and to the unfortunate motor vehicle accidents.
“You never know what it is until you get to the station,” he said.
“When our pagers went off, we always looked at it with a sense of urgency as you never know what that emergency could be.”
Jonathan also recalls the challenging jobs he would be tasked with and this involved fatalities.
This was especially harder when in a small and tight community like Cootamundra.
In contrary, he said there were great wins such as attending an MVA and being involved in the vital role with saving a life, such as vehicle extrication.
“They are the ones that drive you forward, the good that you do,” he said.
When asked about Samuel and Luke, Jonathan said they both bring a wealth of experience to the crew, and that he can always count on them to get the job done.
“When you go out to a job you all know what you have to do,” Mr Berryman said.
“You can rely on them because they’ve been in it as long as I have. That’s huge when you go to an incident and you can concentrate on doing your own job, and know they are doing their job well at the same time.”
Captain Les Carr also described Samuel and Luke as both “great family man”.
When Sam started firefighting he moved away for almost a year to Junee and then transferred back to the Cootamundra station and is today one of the vital cores of the team.
“It felt like only yesterday when Samuel first joined,” Les joked.
“Sam is a great person, it’s always a family affair with him and nothing ever flusters him when he is on the job.”
Luke is also described as another asset to the team, a great team player and leader when needed, and would always be the first one to put his hand up to do anything.
Besides being great with his hands on the job, Mr Cram enjoys being out and about in the public lending a hand.
He has the experience to know what is needed to be done which is vital in that job.
In reflection of the past decade, Captain Carr recalls the trio only being juniors when the 2007 silos fires hit Cootamundra and forced the evacuation of 1,500 people from nearby homes.
The incident was a result of a build-up of explosive gasses and heat from smouldering fire inside the silo.
Since the trio began more than a decade ago, the brigade have included more training for firies and this continually upskills them.
Besides training, crew members have also been away on numerous taskforce which included the major bushfires last year.
The 266 unit were actively supporting Batlow when the area got wiped out.
Besides fighting on the front, the 266 firies engages with local schools from time-to-time, including an educational mock MVA with the high school a few years ago.
With the 266 unit Open Day this Saturday, Firefighter Berryman will be present and is encouraging all to take interest, especially the younger ones.
“The new skills that you acquire from this are invaluable,” he said.
“You are joining a great team with a wealth of experience and gaining new skills which you can utilise in the outside life such as first-aid as an example.”
FNR 266 Captain Les Carr said the Open Day was an excellent opportunity for the public to meet their local firefighters and see what they do, besides firefighting.
“From fires, road crashes, hazardous material incidents and natural disasters to urban search and rescue, our crew are prepared for anything and ready to help anytime, anywhere,” he said.
“A large part of our role is to educate the community about home fire safety and that’s where Open Day comes in.
“This year we are focussing on the i importance of having a working smoke alarm in your home.”
Les warned that there is a 10 per cent increase in the number of house fires during the cooler months, with many fires starting in bedrooms and loungerooms due to heaters and electric blankets.
“Come down and have a gold coin donation sausage sandwich [CanAssist] with us and a drink and come have a look at the equipments we use on a daily and ask questions to the crew.”
The Open Day on May 15 will be run from 10am to 2pm at the Cootamundra Fire Station on 14/16 Adams Street.
Meanwhile also at the station’s presentation night, the 266 unit were saddened to say their goodbyes to firefighter Matthew Hoy who has retired after giving seven years of service.
Mr Hoy was another member heavily involved with the bushfire work earlier last year.
The Times would like to remind the public that voting is still open to nominate and vote for an outstanding Emergency Services here in Cootamundra.
This is a Coota-exclusive initiative and nominations are open for the following categories, NSW Police, FNR, Ambulance, Hospital and Medical Centre staff, RFS and SES.
Nominations close June 11 and winners will announced at the Combined Emergency Services Ball held on June 19.
Christopher Tan