TWIN MILESTONE FOR FIREFIGHTER

Owen Young has recently celebrated both his 50th wedding anniversary and his 50 years service to the Gerringong Rural Fire Service.

A GERRINGONG man has had a year to remember after reaching two remarkable 50-year milestones within a month of each other.

No sooner had 74-year-old Owen Young of Gerringong celebrated his 50th anniversary to wife Jean, he was forced to don the party hat again as he recently celebrated 50 years service with the Gerringong Rural Fire Service.

I got married on October 13th in 1956 and we borrowed my fathers 1952 Holden and took off for a week around the Riverina and out to Canberra for my honeymoon, he said.

When I returned Colin Chittick got me to come along to the RSL Hall where they used to hold the fire meetings and I became a member there and then only about a week or so after I got married.

Obviously things have changed a bit now, technology and the roads are better but the comradeship and mateship is still the same within the brigade.

Among the biggest changes over Mr Youngs stellar bush fire fighting career was the introduction of pagers to alert members to a fire with the Gerringong fire service life member saying the device had helped save a lot of properties.

Before pagers came about we just had the siren next to the Town Hall that used to let all the members now there was a fire. These days people are able to react so much quicker with all the technology available, he said. Obviously the pumps have changed a lot as well. We used to have to fight those big fires with hand pumped hoses which got to be a bit hard after a while. The new trucks the boys have are fantastic. They are a great fire fighting tool but they also look after everyones safety which is very important.

Mr Young says a massive Shoalhaven Heads bushfire was the worst he has fought.

That fire started in the garbage dump near Gerroa and took off all the way down to Shoalhaven Heads. I remember thinking we had it out at the Berry crossroads but the wind picked up and it jumped across the road and just kept going, he said.

That fire was going so fast I didnt think we would have time to get out of the way when it was coming at us. It took a good week to get out but we finally did it.

Despite 50 years of service to the Gerringong Rural Fire Service the former Kiama council employee has no plans to retire just yet saying he still enjoys the company of his fellow members as much as he did when he first started.

The fire brigade has been wonderful to me, he said. When I go down to the station the boys treat me like a nugget of gold, they really do. Apart from the comradeship I think the main reason I have enjoyed being part of the service for so long is the fact that you are part of a an organisation that is really needed and we are there helping people when they get in trouble.

The people of Gerringong should know they are in really good hands. The boys up here do a fantastic job.