RFS farewell ‘selfless and special man’ Andrew O’Dwyer
Charlotte O'Dwyer stood in front of her father’s casket wearing his fire helmet yesterday as family, friends and RFS colleagues farewelled Andrew O’Dwyer who died while battling one NSW’s devastating bushfires.
NSW
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Volunteer firefighter Andrew O’Dwyer’s daughter tugged at the brass levers on his wooden casket and turned to the packed church and smiled.
Not once did the 18 month toddler leave his shiny coffin.
Looking down at her from the pulpit as he addressed the hundreds of mourners who packed Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church for his requiem funeral mass, RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons broke down saying: “Baby Charlotte, your dad was a selfless man, a special man and he only left us because he was a hero …”
As the lethal Green Wattle Creek fire that claimed his life spreads to alarming proportions into the tortuous tangled wilderness west of Mittagong, the loyal firefighter, 36, was laid to rest at an emotional funeral service at Horsley Park yesterday.
“He was the fabric of the brigade, he was dedicated, loyal, stubborn but charismatic,” Mr Fitzsimmons had said handing his wife Melissa a posthumous award for his extraordinary service and bravery.
“He was a genuine decent guy who loved the outdoors and serving the community.”
Mr O’Dwyer and fellow firey Geoffrey Keaton, 32, perished battling the fire when a burnt ‘widow maker’ gum toppled onto the cab of their fire truck, killing them instantly, on December 19.
Hundreds of mourners including Prime Minister Scott Morrison and wife Jenny and Premier Gladys Berejiklian packed the church to commemorate the fallen volunteer firefighter, the 20th victim of the state’s summer long bushfires as mourners.
“Words cannot express the loss and sorrow that I’m feeling for my son,” his father Errol O’Dwyer told the congregation.
“He was a sweet boy, even as a baby, he always watched his sister’s back.
“He was not an academic but he always wanted to serve in the RFS and joined the Brigade in 1999.
“He was a dreamer, leader and Charlotte was the apple of her father’s eye.
“He took great joy in everything he did whether it was gardening, fishing, watching TV, he loved life.
“To have lost Andrew is heartbreaking and had come as a shock to all of us.
“Goodbye my son, you will live in our hearts forever. My heart is broken, I love you forever, dad.”
His coffin was carried out by firefighters who formed a guard of honour for the former Woolworths manager and firefighter from Horsley Park 1 Alpha.
As a ceremonial Haka was performed his wife Melissa helped Charlotte learn in to kiss her father’s coffin before his body was driven away in a white hearse.
Captain of the Horsley Park Royal Fire service Brigade Darren Nation recalled the day Mr O’Dwyer turned up at the station as a teenager asking to join.
‘‘Do you like camping and do you like a drink?’ I asked him and he said he did,” he said.
“From that day on the station gained a great firefighter and I gained great mate.
“I watched him grow from a teenager to a young man and an adult and finally a husband and father,” he said.
“His love as a firefighter was as thicker than blood.
“Andrew would do anything for anyone – if you were in the middle of a fire storm with embers, he would drop everything to come and get you.
“He will carry you 90kms on his back if it’s what it took.
“He was a rare soul. He loved me, but more than me he loved his wife Melissa and Charlotte. “I am grateful his memory will live on in Charlotte. He was my best mate, I love him and miss him.”
Originally published as RFS farewell ‘selfless and special man’ Andrew O’Dwyer
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