For 100 years the Narrabeen Fire Brigade has had the life of the community in its hands.
‘We can be rescuing a horse in Terrey Hills one moment, next we are over the side of a cliff rescuing a patient and attending a structure fire to finish the shift.’
Manly
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For 100 years the officers serving with the Narrabeen Fire Brigade have had the life of the community in their hands.
Whether it is rescuing people who have fallen off cliffs, children washed down rain swollen drains or extracting injured motorists from their wrecked cars, the brave and caring men and women have always been ready to do their duty.
A century of service was celebrated last week when the NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Paul Baxter, and his deputy, Jim Hamilton, visited the fire station at 9 Ocean St, Narrabeen, to meet some of the past and present firefighters and thank them for their work.
Along with special guests including Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan and State MP for Manly James Griffiths, those at the event were reminded of the dangerous duties firefighters were expected to undertake as part of their day to day jobs.
Station Officer Murray McGlenchy told the visitors that the Narrabeen brigade was set up in 1919 after concerns by local landowners that the upper northern beaches was too far from the Sydney Fire District, if there was a major fire.
The Board of Fire Commissioners of NSW agreed and an interim “portable” fire station was built on Devitt St until a permanent home could be found.
The permanent station on Ocean St, which is still in operation, opened in September 1931.
Since then the brigade has been involved in some of the most dramatic public emergencies on the northern beaches including the Palm Beach bushfires of 1938; the Woolworths supermarket fire at Warringah Mall in 1973 where two employees were killed; the successful search for a young boy washed 750m down a stormwater drain at Collaroy Plateau in 1983 and; the childcare centre crash at Fairlight that badly injured a little girl called Sophie Delezio in 2003.
In 1992 Narrabeen Fire Brigade became the accredited primary rescue station for the region and in 2003 it also became the vertical (cliff) rescue unit for the area.
“Our day to day role here at Narrabeen can entail anything from a day of responding to fire, storm, motor vehicle accidents, industrial rescue and hazardous material incidents, cliff rescues, and assisting the public,” S.O. McGlenchy said.
“Probably one of the aspects that we appreciate the most about being stationed here at Narrabeen is that no days are ever the same. We can be rescuing a horse in Terrey Hills one moment, next we are over the side of a cliff rescuing a patient and attending a structure
fire to finish the shift.”