Things have changed since Merv Langfield first donned his Rural Fire Service uniform and hat in the middle of last century.
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Merv was recently honoured for his long service to the RFS which commenced in 1946.
While Merv spent the majority of his firefighting career in Bandon Brigade, he also spent 20 years serving in Greenethorpe Brigade.
He has watched the RFS grow and change over the decades.
Merv said he started as hose operator right after leaving school in 1946.
In those days, Merv said, many people joined the RFS after school.
“I joined as soon as I left school. It was just the natural thing you did when you were young,” he said.
One of the duties Merv remembers doing consistently when he joined the Greenethorpe Brigade was waiting for the rail locomotives to pass through town.
Merv said when the train went up a major hill, the loco drivers had to stoke the engines which occasionally caused burning coal to drop out of the train.
“That was my first experience of firefighting,” Merv said.
Merv recalls fighting fires slightly differently when he first joined because their fire trucks didn’t have as much capacity to store water. This forced them to rely on water pressure, rather than volume.
A close call that Merv recalls was when he was working in a gully to extinguish a fire near Grenfell.
The fire jumped from one hill to another over the top of his crew.
“It was a nerve wracking few minutes, closest to being burnt (I’ve been),” he said.
Merv moved to Eugowra in 1961 and joined the Bandon Brigade, which Merv says had a good captain and secretary running it.
After several years in the Brigade, Merv was installed as a captain, a position which he held for almost a decade.
Merv liked being involved in the RFS and doing his part for the local community.
During his time in Bandon Brigade, Merv attended a range of different incidents in and around town.
Merv reflected on the oddity of nature when he said that during one call out, he had to drive through rain to get to the fire.
On another callout, Merv remembers seeing a house and pine tree completely unscathed after a bushfire had gone completely around it.
Merv attributed the survival of the house to a lucky strike of fire retardant dropped from a plane.
Of his long service to the local brigades Merv said he was just doing his part.
“I was privileged to have a good team,” Merv said.