Siren sounds for thanks

HEADS turn as the sirens wail and the big red trucks roar by.
But few of us stop to think about the enormous amount of training and work that goes into keeping those fire trucks on the road or about what would happen if they were not there.
This year the Berwick Fire Brigade celebrates its 80th birthday, and the Gazette has noted that milestone.
Along with Berwick, other Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteer brigades deserve commendation for their work.
The brigades support each other in a highly organised and efficient network that has a CFA vehicle on the site of a crisis in the minimum of time.
When they arrive at a callout, the trained volunteers are fully equipped and able to deal with most events.
They must sometimes cope with shocking situations, yet at times can rejoice because they have saved someone from a wreck and very often have saved lives just because of their promptness and devotion to the call of duty.
Often they save property from total destruction and most certainly prevent bad fires from spreading to neighbouring properties as a regular part of their work. Wild fires are tamed and cut off.
We take that all for granted probably because they have ‘always’ been there.
The volunteers have camaraderie, and a sense of duty for what they do.
We think about a firefighter as someone who quells fires, but they will be called to save a kitten from a drainpipe, a child with a finger caught in a plughole, or a person from a wrecked car or a burning house.
This at any time of the day or night, weekday, Easter or Christmas holidays.
Perhaps a little cheer would be appropriate as the sirens wail and the red trucks roar by.