Cranbourne CFA’s new recruits David Felmingham and Tim Cochrane. 66161
By Bridget Cook
CRANBOURNE CFA has welcomed two new recruits to the team this week.
Tim Cochrane, from Wonga Park, and David Felmingham, from Traralgon, started as full-time fire-fighters at the station on Monday.
Station officer Michael Cherry said the men had only been out on one burn-off job so far, but had fit in well.
“They will now be fairly heavily involved in training to get that up to scratch,” he said.
“It takes five weeks training before they can drive the trucks, then another five weeks before they can drive the bigger trucks. They also do a lot of training on the pumping side of things.”
Mr Cherry said the Cranbourne station was often the first point of call for recruits.
“For a number of years, Cranbourne, Hallam and Springvale stations have been marked as training stations,” he said.
“Recruits are able to take part in fairly intense increment training.
“If they go to bigger stations they can get lost in all the people and action and not get the one-on-one attention they can here.”
The men were two of 25 CFA recruits to graduate from the Fiskville Training College recently.
Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Emergency Services Bill Tilley said the CFA would benefit from a diverse range of skills and knowledge that the fire-fighters will bring to their roles.
Mr Tilley said the professionalism of the recruits was evident in their dedication to their studies, their high level of proficiency and overall performance during recruit training, which would serve them well as CFA fire-fighters.
“Today’s graduates have come from a range of professions, including trades, sales, building, IT, mechanical and emergency services,” Mr Tilley said.
“This diversity is not only important for the CFA as an organisation, but it is also a valuable attribute for fire-fighters.”
