The two of us: Taradale brigade father and son

 

Taradale Fire Brigade Captain Lachie Elliott followed in his father’s footsteps as a CFA firefighter.

 

His son Ollie, aged 18, is now continuing the legacy and is attending turnouts alongside his dad, who couldn’t be prouder.

Lachie

“I’ve come from a CFA family, so to see Ollie start at CFA was really rewarding. It's nice to have him involved.

There’s a lot of things I’m proud of that he’s done. When he finished his General Firefighter, that was great. I knew he was going to breeze through it, but it was a nice feeling that he got there.

On 9 January this year, we had a big day up at the Harcourt fire. That was significant for him to be involved in such a massive campaign, to experience something like that and be able to protect the community in such a massive event. I was just proud of him getting involved and putting his training into practice.

On another strike team, his first one, I was actually on the back of the tanker with him on the way to the staging area. We chatted the whole time and it was a really nice moment. I generally sit in the passenger seat, drive the truck or crew lead, but it was just the two of us on the back and I thought ‘this is pretty cool. This is a nice little moment’.

He doesn't mind doing the hard stuff; he just does it and never complains. That's what I'm most proud of, I think, that he is so enthusiastic and a great firefighter. Everybody at the brigade thinks he's really fantastic, and he helps everyone out. You’d think he’d been doing it for 10 years because he’s just so passionate about it.

He’s taught me to just keep at it. I’ve been really proud of him, and he's just thrived and done really well so far.”

Ollie

“As soon as I was old enough (I think it was actually the day of my birthday) I signed up for Juniors. When I was 16 I did my General Firefighter training so I could start turning out.  

On the day of my first turnout, I was on the same truck as dad, and that’s a memory that really stands out. During the big fires in Harcourt on 9 January, dad was on tanker 1 and I was on tanker 2. Being at such a big fire so close to our home and experiencing that together, was special.

There was another time we were called to a strike team for a fire in the Cobaw State Forest. We picked dad up in Malmsbury on the way to the staging area and he was on the back of the tanker with me. We were just talking the whole way and I remember him saying ‘it's been a long time since I've been on the back!’.

What I admire most is how down to earth he is. He’s so level-headed about pretty much everything and so easy to talk to. He has so much experience and I think that really shows, as a captain, as a crew leader and as an incident controller. He really knows what he's doing and gets things to run so smoothly, especially on the fireground.

A big thing he’s taught me is resilience. On 9 January this year, some of the situations were quite tough and he showed me how to keep going. He's taught me not to get tunnel vision, to look at the bigger picture.

He’s got such a good relationship with everyone he knows, and I think that helps him as a captain to build those relationships.

Volunteering together has 100 per cent brought us closer. I don't think many people can say that they’ve put fires out with their dad. Overall, I think it's just pretty damn cool.”

 

Submitted by	News and Media