Mayor Michelle Dracoulis condemns theft of New Norfolk Fire Brigade volunteer’s property
The small but mighty New Norfolk Brigade has been rocked by the theft of volunteers’ property while they were cleaning up after an incident. Read the reaction.
Tasmania
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Derwent Valley mayor Michelle Dracoulis has described the theft of personal belongings of volunteer fire brigade members at New Norfolk as a “low act”.
She said with the thousands of hours the small team of volunteers put in to help the community, it was “not acceptable”.
“They are there for us in any situation, whether it is a fire or a motor vehicle crash,” Ms Dracoulis said.
“They always come, no matter the time, day or night.
“This is just not acceptable, we need them.
“It is a low and unforgivable act.”
In a post on Facebook, the brigade which has just 28 members, said volunteers had their belongings robbed overnight on Friday.
“It’s very disappointing to have to write this,” the post said.
“In the very late hours of last night and into the early hours of this morning our members were in the station cleaning up after an incident, someone has entered our station back carpark where our members cars were and removed personal belongings from multiple members vehicles.”
The brigade thanked Tasmania Police for their quick response and urged anyone with information to contact police.
“Luckily there is a camera that faces directly on to this car park and footage is being collected and passed on to the police,” the brigade said.
They said they attend more than 300 incidents on average every year with each incident lasting on average two hours.
“This doesn’t included our weekly training of 2 hours, our training courses which are usually 1-2 days long some up to 4 days. And some people do onwards and upwards of 3 courses per year,” they wrote.
“Going of (sic) our incident statistics and our member count it results in 16,800 hours we drop everything to help out community per year.
“That’s 16,800 hours that some of us don’t attend work, family dinners, friends’ birthdays, kids’ sports etc.
“We do all this for our community and yet our belongings are not safe.”
Ms Dracoulis said the thefts were “terrible” and urged anyone with information to come forward.
Originally published as Mayor Michelle Dracoulis condemns theft of New Norfolk Fire Brigade volunteer’s property
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