CFS News

Joining the CFS had been on my list for 30 years. When I moved from Adelaide to Naracoorte for work in the late 80’s many of the folk I got to know volunteered with the CFS. It was something I was “going” to do

My wife & I moved to Aberfoyle Park in the mid 90’s , and we were startled when the Happy Valley CFS siren sounded in the middle of the night over the back fence on Taylors Road. I thought I would get around to joining them, but I didn’t.

We upgraded our home 9 years ago, still living in Aberfoyle Park; the thought of joining the CFS bubbled away from time to time.

Just over twelve months ago, I turned up at the Cherry Gardens CFS station on a Monday night to ‘sound’ them out and have not looked back.

I’ve undertaken a number of training courses because I wanted to learn as many aspects of firefighting as I could; I’ve attended residential and farm structure fires, vehicle fires, a local grass fire, participated in strike teams to other areas affected by fire as well as attending to local storm damage.

I have recently completed the CFS breathing apparatus training and put those skills to use one week later during a structure fire call.

The Cherry Gardens CFS camaraderie is fantastic; getting to know this group of folk living in and around the district has been great. In addition, being able to help our community when they need assistance has been a bonus.

If you are local- within a 6-7-minute response time to the fire station- call in on a Monday night and see what we get up to. We have a great cross-section of ages, women and men, involved on the trucks or with the Sturt Group Communications. There are roles for everyone!

A Defensive Fire Training Course was recently held at the Cherry Gardens station on June 1&2 2019. Pictured is a training scenario on a venting gas bottle, which is under the control of qualified instructors. Carrying out training such as this helps keep us prepared for such events.