AT 96, NSW Rural Fire Brigade volunteer firefighter Roy Stacy is something of a local legend.
The Griffith grandfather has been a fighting fires for 75 years and has no plans to leave protecting his community to the “young-uns”.
Roy began his firefighting career back in 1944 while serving at RAAF Richmond.
“Some of us country boys in the armaments section decided to form our own bushfire brigade and help fight the local fires,” Roy said.
Leaving the RAAF in 1947, Roy went back to working on his father’s farm and joined his local fire brigade.
Today he’s a member and treasurer of the Kooba brigade and was still active on the front line until three years ago when he had a heart attack in his garage.
“When I was a young lad my father had a dairy farm with a number of hay stacks,” Roy said.
“One day a spark from a steam engine set the hay stacks on fire and that’s always stuck in my mind and made me determined to fight fires.”
Roy was invaluable to the brigades for his work renovating old military vehicles and turning them into fire trucks.
Knowing the importance of what he was doing for his community and the mateship that came from being part of a volunteer fire brigade have been the driving forces behind his long service, which has seen him attend bushfires all over NSW.
“It’s the top volunteering job,” said Roy, who was presented with the Australian Fire Service Medal three years ago by the then NSW governor, Dame Marie Bashir.
“I’ve been really lucky; I’ve had good teams of good men and I’ve been able to teach a lot to the young ones.”
His long service is in no short measure due to the support of his wife Nancy.
The couple have been married for 67 years and have two daughters, one of whom is a chaplain with the Victorian Fire Brigade in Geelong.
Help at hand to prepare for the worst
SUMMER is almost on us and that means being prepared for bushfires. But preparing a property for the bushfire season – clearing blocked gutters, overgrown vegetation and the build up of flammable rubbish – can be difficult if not impossible for many elderly or disabled people.
That’s where the AIDER (Assist Infirm, Disabled and Elderly Residents) program can help.
The free program is a one-off service by the NSW Rural Fire Service to support some of our most at-risk community members.
Services include clearing gutters, thinning vegetation around the home, removing leaf and tree debris, trimming branches from close to the home and mowing or slashing long grass.
Heidi Jackel from the program said teams of firefighters from around the state carried out the mitigation work.
A work assessment officer meets with the elderly or disabled person, and their family if possible, to discuss what needs to be done.
The property needs to be in a bushfire-prone area – 350 metres from the house to some significant bushland or 100 metres from substantial grasslands or woodland.
“We bring the property to a safe bush fire state. A well prepared property has a much better chance during a bushfire than one that is not,” Ms Jackel said.
The AIDER team also help the householder to develop a survival plan. “The most dangerous thing is to panic and not know what to do.”
Ms Jackel stressed that the program was a one-off service. But the AIDER teams do provide information about other agencies that might be able to help in the future.
“It’s encouraged that older people be involved with their neighbours. They can be a saving grace in an emergency – isolation can be a dangerous thing.”
The AIDER program is carried out in spring and the beginning of summer.
- (02) 8741-4955, 1800-679-737.
