Young blood needed to prevent closure of rural fire brigade

80-year-old Kevin Harney, first officer at Cungulla Rural Fire Brigade is looking to retire soon. And that could be problematic for his small community during fire season.

Cungulla Rural Fire Brigade Station first officer Kevin Harney, 80, has urged for more volunteers, as he worries what will happen to the station when he retires. Picture: Evan Morgan

Cungulla faces losing its rural fire brigade and firetrucks being moved elsewhere if more “run of the mill”, young people do not step up to bolster its low numbers of aging volunteers.

First officer Kevin Harney, 80, believes it would be “every man for himself” if Cungulla endured a fire without the support of its rural fire brigade, and he did not believe the broader community understood the implications if it was closed because there was no volunteers.

He is desperate to find young blood at the annual general meeting on Sunday, who could eventually take on the leadership after his looming retirement.

Mr Harney said the rural fire brigade had 12 members, with half based in Townsville, but that at any time he could rely only on two volunteers to go out on the field because of their work rosters, which could be problematic if an emergency was to arise.

He was concerned the fire brigade could follow the same pattern as the locally based State Emergency Service, which closed about 15 years ago.

Cungulla Rural Fire Brigade with Tracy Harney, Bryan Dowd, Div 10 councillor Brady Ellis, Sylvia Harney, and Kev Harney.

“It’s very frustrating … there are younger people that could join, see I’m over 80 and I’m still fighting fires, but I’m nowhere near as good or as spry as I used to be,” Mr Harney said.

“That’s why I need younger people to take over, step up and take over, but geez it's hard.

“Out of the 12 people I’ve got on the books, sometimes I can get two, sometimes it’s only me and I can’t leave the fire station without an offsider.

Cungulla Rural Fire Brigade with Division 10 councillor Brady Ellis and 1st officer Kev Harney.

“So for me to rely on any more than two offsiders, I’ve got to have a minimum of 20 people, firefighters, on the books as volunteers.”

Meanwhile, fire conditions in the area were “pretty dire” with some places not been burnt for six years and with fuel loads increasing.

“I initiated some hazard reduction burns down there three weeks ago now, which will protect some of the houses down there, but more needs to be done,” he said.

Townsville Division 10 councillor Brady Ellis expressed his concern for the rural fire brigade’s declining numbers in the council meeting on Wednesday, and visited the brigade the following day to raise awareness of the situation.

“The rural fire brigade in Cungulla is in a lot of trouble at the moment, they are an ageing group of volunteers,” Mr Ellis said.

“They’ve got the shed, they’ve got the hoses, they’ve got the Australian flag out sitting at the front, but they don’t have enough young blood in there so they’re really, really passionate on trying to get some young people involved.

“They do not want to lose this service, because if they can’t get some younger volunteers they will lose it, the trucks will come back to Townsville, that part of the community will be cut off and helpless so if anyone is feeling like they want to get involved this is the time.”

The AGM will be held at 9am on Sunday at the Cungulla Rural Fire Brigade.

Originally published as Young blood needed to prevent closure of rural fire brigade