Mourners pay tribute to veteran RFS volunteer Col Burns
NSW Rural Fire Service veteran Col Burns, who died in an out-of-control bushfire on New Year’s Eve, has been remembered as a kind-hearted, generous prankster at an emotional funeral service held in Sydney’s west today.
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Prankster, poet and firefighter Colin Burns, 72, was farewelled at a moving funeral in Sydney’s west today.
Mr Burns, 72, was killed in the out of control Badja Fire near the tiny hamlet of Cobargo on the state’s south coast on New Year’s Eve.
His body was found by members of his own brigade in a burned out car, which has led firefighters to suspect he was attempting to outrun the fire and seek shelter in the local fire station.
“Tragically, Colin never made it to the shed and never got that shelter,” RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told mourners at Mary Mother of the Church in Macquarie Fields.
Mr Burns was a 22-year NSW Rural Fire Service veteran who was deeply devoted to his brigade.
“He was a kind-hearted man who was always there to help others, so it rings true that he served his community in such a meaningful way,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.
“He didn’t just sign up (to the RFS), he was involved in everything the brigade did.”
Mr Fitzsimmons and Belowra RFS brigade captain Ewan Thomson presented Mr Burns’ distraught wife with an RFS flag during the funeral service.
The former surveyor and miner once ran a pit at the world’s largest open-cut copper mine in Papua New Guinea, but friends instead remembered a man who preferred the simple things in life.
“Generous, cheerful, kind-hearted and caring are all understatements when describing Rover,” friend Jonathan Kugler said.
“He was the quintessential Aussie bushie, as tough as they come, with skin as thick as the goannas he caught to show off to his friends.”