MY FIRE FIGHTING HISTORY

Cranbourne Volunteer Urban Fire Brigade 1985

Thankyou for visiting my website, my name is Howard Mackay and l`m a third generation fire fighter. My Great Grand father was a foundation member to the Bendigo C.F.A.Victoria(as seen in the cfa fireman magazine) his son was a Station Officer at Melbourne Metropolitan fire brigade number One Station. I started my fire fighting service at the age of 12yrs as a junior at Carrum Urban Fire Brigade Victoria. Then at the age of 15 yrs I was the youngest CFA member to be taken into the senior side of the fire service. I stayed with Carrum for a number of years, in that time l learnt all the theory & practical aspects of fire fighting whether it be a bushfire, structural or any other type of incident . Whilst at Carrum l had the privilege of attending the C.F.A. training centre at Fiskville. This facility is one of the most professional and well organized training centres that l have ever attended. Later l transfered to Chelsea brigade where it was a 24hr manned station, then years later l returned to Carrum only to be involved in one of the worst holocausts in Australia`s history, Ash Wednesday. Our brigade was to contain and extinguish fires in the Cockatoo area. I moved on to Cranbourne fire brigade (picture above) and spent two years with them until l moved to Western Australia. My family and l then travelled to Western Australia where in the past 15 years l have been a member of two volunteer brigades.Cardup Volunteer Fire Brigade, where l was a 2nd Lieutentant, then Captain of the brigade for 2 1/2years until it`s closure due to amalgamation of brigades. I then transfered to Mundijong Volunteer Fire Brigade, where l have been Captain, Brigade Training Instructor and 2rd, 3rd & 4th Lieutentant . As a fire fighter here l have increased my knowledge of fire behaviour and supression for this part of Australia, as it is a totally different fire ground to Victoria. By going back to the class room and learning new methods l have graduated up the ladder with a number of certificates such as,Fire Control Officer, Senior Fire Fighter, Basic F/Fighter, Incident Control System 4.04,Advanced Fire Fighter and many others,but most of all knowledge. l have been a Local Government Head Training Instructor. I am a certified Category 1 & Category 4 Work Place Trainer/Assessor . At present l`m finding it very rewarding to write Training Modules that look at fire fighting equipment that requires specific training for fire fighters. The main reason why l have done this type of volunteer work for 39+ years is that it is fulfilling to be able to do something for the community where you live. I would recomend this type of volunteer work to any person at any age & encourage the young to join as cadets.