Above: CFA crews head out to control fires in Gippsland last Thursday. By Sarah Schwager
TOORADIN CFA Captain David Bulman will not be home for Christmas this year.
After 27 years of volunteering with the CFA, Mr Bulman will spend his first Christmas away from home fighting fires in Gippsland.
“I don’t know where I’ll be this Christmas but, I’ll be having lunch with someone else, I don’t know who,” he said.
“I’m sure I’ll manage to find a cold beer, though.”
Mr Bulman only returned last week from a strike team sent to Dargo in Gippsland, where he spent four days helping with asset protection.
“We patrolled the area in case fires did go over and helped locals get their places in order,” he said.
Mr Bulman said on his last day on duty he helped the Department of Sustainability and the Environment (DSE) do backburning in Castleburn.
“The people were happy to see us but very concerned about what was happening,” he said.
“It hasn’t eased. They’ve been told it’s not a matter of if but when the fire comes.”
Mr Bulman said there was an eerie feeling in the Gippsland towns with the smoke cover.
“We never saw the skyline. On the Monday at 3pm it looked as if it was 10pm, with a glow of fire in the distance,” he said.
Mr Bulman heads to Heyfield in Gippsland this Saturday to again work with the DSE and asset protection.
“The family is always concerned when I go out to a fire,” he said. “It would be nice to be able to pick and choose when fires come, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.
“Someone has got to do it.
“If it was in our area, people would come and help us. That’s why we all do it.”
Mr Bulman said before he left for Gippsland he would be focusing on his home town as the weather heated up.
He said everyone had to help out in times of crisis and he thanked his employers at agriculture suppliers Kverneland-Gendore in Tooradin for all their support.
