Little Abby Ciccaldo wants to be an RFS volunteer just like her dad
Most kids dream of growing up to become police officers or astronauts. Not little Abby Ciccaldo. The three-year-old wants to be an RFS volunteer like her dad Anthony. Anthony is stationed with the Horsley Park brigade, which lost two members.
NSW
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When three-year-old Abby Ciccaldo grows up she wants to fight bushfires beside her dad and mum, and all the other men and women from the Horsley Park brigade.
“I want to be a firefighter when I’m big and I’ll sit in the back seat of Daddy’s truck and I’ll help him fight the fires,” Abby said.
Abby calls all 68 Horsley Park firefighters her aunties and uncles.
The volunteers will also be uncle or aunty to Charlotte O’Dwyer and Harvey Keaton, both 19 months old. But Charlotte and Harvey won’t be able to sit in the back seat of their dads’ fire truck when they grow up.
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Geoff Keaton, 32, and Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, were killed instantly when a tree crushed and flipped a fire truck at the Green Wattle Creek fireground southwest of Sydney on December 19.
Horsley Park’s firefighters know their future will always include their fallen comrades’ families.
“Charlotte and Harvey have 40 uncles and 20 aunties,” Abby’s father and Horsley Park Rural Fire Brigade Senior Deputy Anthony Ciccaldo said.
“We’re all family here and we make sure the kids know it. The brigade stands stronger together.”
Three firefighters who survived the tragic accident have all returned to the front line. The brigade’s trucks are now emblazoned with “In memory of Geoff Keaton” and “In memory of Andrew O’Dwyer”.
Abby is keenly aware of the important job her father and his mates do when they don yellow fire suits.
“When there’s a fire, Daddy puts on his hat and glasses, and holds the hose to put the fire out,” Abby said.
“People are happy to see Daddy in his fire truck with the flashing lights when a fire is near their house.”
Abby’s mum, Megan Flack, is also a volunteer firefighter who spent five days battling blazes this bushfire season before giving birth to 10-week-old girl Imogen Ciccaldo.