Gundagai Fire Station 313 has welcomed their newest recruit Neha Braathen who returned from Wellington after completing her basic phase training, joining as an operational firefighter. Neha is now doing on-the-job training alongside the rest of the crew.
Andrew Brock of the Gundagai Fire Station said Neha came from the city to have a lifestyle change, moving to Gundagai.
“She basically wanted to get involved with the local community and saw the RFS and Fire and Rescue as opportunities to give back to the community and also learn new skills,” he said.
“She approached us, we had a phone conversation initially and then she came down met some of the crew and realised that this is something that she would really like to do and signed the dotted line basically.
“She has just completed what they call phase training, so phase one and phase two are basically the minimum training that we need to allow a new recruit to be able to participate in incidents, so she’s now a qualified firefighter, even though she’s on three-month probation, she now can turn out to all jobs with us. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the job Neha has seen some of the tougher parts of the job, attending car accidents and other traumatising events that are a part of a firefighters job.
“She just gets in and helps wherever, is very interested in learning new things all the time and has quickly become part of the crew.
“She fits in exceptionally well. We’ve actually said to her that we’re always looking for new recruits and one of the things that the service is trying to promote more is more women in firefighting. Everyone thinks it’s a male dominated industry, but it’s been proven that women actually have a lot to offer the service.
“She’s a breath of fresh air to the station. All the guys have been extremely supportive. We are always looking for new recruits. There’s a lot of pre-course work that you’ve got to do before you go to phase training and the guys made time to help Neha get through the work and answer any questions if she had any.
“It’s not about proving herself. Anyone that looks down the lines of going, “oh, women don’t belong”, any woman that has joined the service has thrown that cliché out the window. They get in do exactly what any male does in the brigades and she brings another set of fresh eyes to incidents and because she’s been to training recently, any new techniques or tricks that the instructors have, she brings that back to the station and shares it with everybody.”
-Jack Murray
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