Face of the fires

IT’S the photo that tells the story of Black Saturday. A CFA volunteer, talking to a worried resident, surrounded by dense smoke and flames.
The image, taken by Dandenong CFA volunteer Keith Pakenham of his colleague First Lieutenant Joe Aitken has come to symbolise the importance of the CFA on that fateful day.
Mr Aitken said he was both surprised and humbled to learn he had become the face of Black Saturday and the Thankyou Firies day held in Pakenham last month.
“It was a bit of a surprise to be honest,” he said. “We were able to save a lot of property that day.”
The photograph was taken on the corner of Princes Way and Potter Road, Longwarry North after the Dandenong crew was deployed to the Labertouche blaze.
“I remember it well,” Mr Aitken said. “We were just about to head back into the fire, down by the powerlines.
“The guy who owned the dairy farm was getting worried about it all, so I was trying to calm him down.”
Mr Aitken said the man, known only as Sean, settled down once they had a chat.
“It’s a bit different actually, not a commonplace kind of thing for us,” he said. “In a situation like that people normally have left already or you just don’t get a chance to talk to people.”
Luckily for Sean, Mr Aitken and his crew stood between the fire and dairy farm and, with the help of Elvis, were able to save the property.
A firefighter for more than 40 years, Mr Aitken said Black Saturday was the most devastating he had seen.
“It was on a par with Ash Wednesday,” he said. “But this one, the devastation was the worst.”
He said the day started off locally with a crew sent to Harkaway.
“We were called there around 9.30am, and could see the smoke from Bunyip and knew it wasn’t going to be a good day,” Mr Aitken said. “It ended up being horrendous.”
By 11.30am the crews were called to the Nar Nar Goon staging area and then sent to Labertouche.
“Once we saw it we knew we would be in for a fight,” he said. “We worked from 12.30pm to 2am that day – just at Labertouche and surrounds.”
When he was asked how his crew could work under the tough conditions of the fire for such a long period of time, Mr Aitken said adrenaline kicked in.
“About 10pm we started to feel a bit rusty,” he said. “But it’s built into you – something you get used to.”
While looking after the safety of his crew, Mr Aitken had another thing on the back of his mind.
“My 18-year-old son Joey was with me, it was his first major fire,” he said.
“It was in the back of my mind, but you always try not to place yourself and the crew in danger.”
With the fire season coming to an end, life has settled down for Mr Aitken since the fires that affected the state, but he said the Dandenong Fire Station was as busy as ever.