Black Saturday

[Sheambo]

Timmy.........make sure that you attend all the debriefings, when the time comes. The the two crucial ones are going to be the Operational debrief.( what we did right and what we did wrong stuff) but the most important one is the psychological debrief. To comply with Post Traumatic Debriefs, there must be a counselor attending and in this instance, more that one. You must be emotionally over this one before you can ever be asked to attend any other major incident. I cannot stress how important that is.

'Will I ever forget ?" I hear you ask.....................no, and nor you should. All those people will put a different meaning into your life and at 19 your life is just unfolding. Let the experiences of the last week, give you a very valuable life lesson and you will grow into a valuable, caring and emotionally well adjusted person who is committed to the caring and well being of others in the hour of their greatest need.

I do know what you are going through.................I've been there and I know the feeling of insignificance at the scene. "What can I do"...........................and the answer is usually, "not much" !! Don't beat yourself up over the inadequacy you may have felt. That is very normal.............................and finally, remember, the most important person at any scene, is YOU.

Take care and a Job well done..............RoseMarie

[aussiephil]

Timmy,

I am proud to see you had the conviction to volunteer to go into he area.

You have, in my opinion gone well beyond what most would expect.

Well done.

This has been a tragedy beyond what any of us could have ever expected. Seeing the numbers, at the time of writing this post, 181 dead is bad enough, however, to see the faces of the men womes, children & babies who perished in this blaze adds to the horror. Knowing that, without holding back, some low, weak piece of shit deliberatly lit some of the fires that took some of these lives makes me sick.

I hope they are caught. I hope they are denied protective custody & they meet their maker in the most painful way possible.

Phil

[Timmy]

I do apologise if I have been short with any of you over the past few days, were burnt out and tired down here.

Were going into the forth week of the fires and insanity. People say life goes on, I know it will but it's hard to see, the fires are still burning and as I speak another is building. Just as you think things are contained another flares up and it all starts again. You try to get on with life but your constantly requested to attended again and again. We've burnt out the interstate and international resources so it's back up to the local guys until further help arrives.

Over the past weeks I've seen and dealt with things I never wish to deal with again so long as I live. So many people have died, so many property's destroyed,so many lives completely shattered and at the drop of a hat it can all happen again. At first your running on adrenaline, then the desire to go back and help but when they ask you again and again to come back your running on nothing, there's no emotion left. I have no desire to go back but every time they ring or email you there scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

I've taken time off school to attend, it has effected my motivation to do my best and I have no desire to study. Even know your away from the major fires and 'resting' you still have to attend local jobs and everyone is in the same boat, tired, emotional and burnt out. When your not doing anything related to the fires your getting the vehicles serviced, working, helping others cope with problems, trying to study, doing admin, attending training, trying to get on with life as per normal and hoping like hell you will wake up and it was all a dream. We all need to rest but we have no time, we've all been going at 100miles an hour for weeks yet it hasnt slowed down. Why wont this craziness stop!

[scott33]

Thanks for sharing again. Tragic loss

[Richard B the EMT]

It may not be much, but I just used a credit card to donate 10 Australian Dollars to the Australian Red Cross. I'll let the credit card people do the international monetary adjustments for the American versus Australian dollars.

Again, tell all your responders, Timmy, be safe, and hard job well done.