This month, we were pleased to provide support and show our appreciation to Marble Bar’s three emergency services Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services (VFES), Western Australia Police Force (WAPOL) and the WA Country Health Service (WACHS) with the supply of t-shirts and water bottles.

The t-shirts supplied to all emergency services groups are a fantastic way to encourage a sense of unity, and reusable Yeti water bottles provided to VFES will help keep its members hydrated when fighting fires in Marble Bar’s unforgiving climate – one of the hottest in Australia!

We continue to be impressed by the lengths that the local emergency services in town go to, to keep the Marble Bar community safe. It has been a rough past few months with a higher than normal number of critical and fatal emergencies, and Western Australia Police Force and WA Country Health Service have been involved in all of these incidents, always going above and beyond their job. These groups are on call 24/7, and often have members of the community at their homes seeking help or advice.

Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services is made up entirely of volunteers, all who have full time jobs, and some who are already part of other emergency services. In addition to their full time jobs, in January 2023 its members put in 375 hours across training, incidents and public education, spread out over the five volunteers who live in the town — an incredible effort.

Our Community Relations Manager Nicole Stein was recently invited to a community BBQ hosted by VFES for the local community and visitors. The group displayed their skills with a hose, also taking the opportunity to demonstrate to some local youths who train with VFES every Wednesday.

“I was so impressed with the young men’s attitudes to learn skills to help their community,” Nicole said. “Mentoring young children by being volunteers is really admirable and great for the young kids to see; they will grow up with a strong sense of fire safety, understand the importance of reporting fires and might even be inspired to join the VFES one day.”