Firefighters clock up 30 years of service each at Wee Waa Fire and Rescue Station

Bruce Cowan and John Fogarty have clocked up an impressive 30 years of service each at the Wee Waa Fire and Rescue Station, and they’re still going strong.

“I resigned after 21 years and they wouldn’t accept my resignation so here I am,” said captain Cowan.

“I’ve always said I won’t go while they’re short, we could do with some more recruits but while they’re short – they’ve got me.

“Also because the way politics is these days if you’re short, and you keep staying short, then you could possibly lose the service and that’s the last thing I want to see for Wee Waa.”

Captain Cowan and deputy captain Fogarty both said serving the community and helping people were the main reasons they put their hands up to join the NSW Fire Brigade back in 1990.

“I think I was about 29 and I was getting my motor car fixed down at Mick Horne’s and Mick was the captain – he was the one that posed the question to me about joining,” said captain Cowan.

“They were looking for some young blokes, and I started chatting to some of the older fellas about it and decided to join.”

“My employer at the time was in the fire brigade,” added deputy captain Fogarty.

“He asked me to join and it looked like it was an okay thing to do, and I thought of the community service element, so I got into it.”

There’s no doubt the job is demanding and it requires crew members to be on call 24/7.

The call-outs stretch far beyond fighting fires.

“We’ve been called out to cats down drain pipes in the main street, crash rescue, assisting ambulance is a big thing at the moment with the elderly in town – if two ambulance people can’t carry them out of a narrow hallway house we usually get called to help them,” said deputy captain Fogarty.

“There was once was a bloke who had his foot stuck in a bucket at Pilliga bore – that’s one of the funnier ones.

“He got it out before we got there, we were all going ‘ you’re kidding me’. He’d got his foot stuck in a steel mop bucket. “

Of course, fire and rescue crews are most often faced with incredibly serious and confronting scenes.

Captain Cowan’s first call out was to a fatal accident in Wee Waa.

“It was drizzling rain, there was fog, and it was just a miserable night,” he recalled.

“I’d been to various drills and what not but hadn’t been on a call, and unfortunately my first call was to a truck and a motor car accident in Mitchell Street – it was a fatal accident.

“I didn’t expect to get something like that on the first call, but that’s the reality.

“When we joined, we joined to be firefighers, we joined to put fires out but you learn very quickly that the job isn’t just about putting fires out.

“It was a miserable night and to top it off when I left the station and drove down past the town clock when I turned left I ran over a black cat.”

The nature of serving a country town means that inevitably crew members will know, or have some connection to, the people at the scene.

“We’ve been called out to a car accident where a friend of ours was killed,” said deputy captain Fogarty.

“It does make it hard.”

“It doesn’t matter what time your pager goes off, the first thing you think about is your family, straight away,” added captain Cowan.

“You try and ‘scenario it up’ as you’re on your way ‘what are we going to, what are we going to, geez I hope it’s a false alarm’,” said captain Cowan.

“You hope it’s just burning toast and not something else,” added deputy captain Fogarty.

Both firefighters said the training, their personalities and the mateship are what helps them cope with the horrors of being first on the scene.

“I do like the comradery with the other guys,” said deputy captain Fogarty.

“When we started we had the ‘old guys’ and we were the ‘young guys’, and now it’s good to talk to some ‘young guys’ and have a bit of banter.”

“Some can cope and some can’t, and for the people that can’t we have a very good service that looks after us that way as well,” said captain Cowan.

“So if you’re not coping you can call chaplains or a critical debrief team.”

Captain Cowan said the job has taught him not to sweat the small stuff in life and gives firefighters a good sense of perspective.

“The one thing this place has given me I think, especially at work, is you don’t panic,” he said.

“I think it’s taught us to sit back and have a look at a situation – it’s good advice for daily life.”

The firefighters said the joy of helping achieve a positive result is also something that makes the challenging role rewarding.

“When you get to a house fire you really feel for the people, but when you can get to something in time and keep the damage to a minimum where they can rebuild – that’s good,” said Captain Cowan.

“I’ve been to motor vehicle accidents and seen people after where you think ‘how did you live?’.”

Both men also thanked their employers, Cotton Seed Distributors and Queensland Cotton, for allowing them to serve the community.

“We’re at home at night but without our employers letting us go during the day, you wouldn’t have a service.”

The Wee Waa Fire and Rescue crew also released a statement to thank their captain and deputy captain for their service.

“Captain Cowan started with NSW Fire Brigade in March 1990 and soon became the station commander in 1994.

“Our station would like to thank him for the last 30 years of protecting and devoting his time to keep our community safe.

“Bruce is currently the longest-serving active member for Wee Waa Fire Station.

“Congratulations on this huge achievement and we hope that we will continue to have you as our leader for a few more years yet.

“We would like to thank Bruce’s family for allowing him to be able to attend calls whenever something was on and for the times he had to drop everything and head off to the station.

“Another thank you to Bruce’s employers for allowing him to leave throughout work hours to attend calls to keep us all safe.”

The statement also read, “Congratulations to our deputy captain John ‘Coogie’ Fogarty.

“He has notched 30 years of service since joining NSW Fire Brigade as a retained firefighter now known as Fire and Rescue NSW in 1990.

“John became the deputy captain in 2004.

“Our crew and community would like to congratulate our ‘D/C’ on this huge achievement with the tireless effort put in over the last 30 years to help protect the community of Wee Waa and surrounding towns.

“A huge thank you to John’s wife Sonia and two sons – it’s never easy having a husband or father as a firefighter and rest assure there have been times when it was a family outing, gathering or just family time, and the pagers have gone off for a call and everything was put on hold while he attended the call.”

There hasn’t been an official celebration to mark the 30-year milestone, coronavirus restrictions have made a party a bit difficult but both captain Cowan and deputy captain Fogarty humbly added, “Every day we’re alive is a party”.