Dunsandel volunteer firefighters Holly and Luke Baird launched a youth cadet programme in 2020 to give local kids an alternative to sports.
Said Holly: "We are going to an increasing number of self-harm calls for young kids, even car accidents where there are young people involved.
"We don’t have anything in our community apart from sports.
"Luke and I were like: ‘We need to create a programme or something that kids can come along to and be themselves, try something new and learn different stuff’.
"We don’t just do firefighting, we do life skills and things like that as well," she said.
The programme runs during daylight saving and is typically capped at 14 cadets at a time.
Since its launch, the programme has produced a fully qualified firefighter and another recruit.
Ethan Richards joined in 2020 aged 16 with his younger sister. Both of them had no prior exposure to firefighting.
"I don’t even know if I heard the siren go off some days and now I can’t seem to miss it," Richards said.
After a year in the programme, he decided to officially join the brigade and train as a firefighter.
Said Holly: "You’re actually standing next to them fighting fires and you think ‘I sparked that interest in him’ and that is pretty awesome."
While some recruits have family ties to firefighting, many come in with no prior connection.
“That’s where I think it’s cool, we can expose people who haven’t been exposed as well,” Holly said.
Luke’s path was similar to many cadets - he got involved out of interest, rather than family tradition.
He began his firefighting journey in Dunoon, New South Wales, with the Rural Fire Service.
"We’ve learned how to teach," Holly said.
"We’re both not teachers - I’m a nurse and Luke’s a mechanic."
Luke hopes to take the programme further by one day working with Fire and Emergency New Zealand to create a training pack that other brigades can use to start similar programmes.
