Belgrave and Emerald CFA captains, from left, Phil Keep, and Paul Yandle, with parents Joanne and Marcus Blyth who named their baby daughter Emerald after the CFA brigade, with son Byron, 3.By Tania Martin
IT IS not every day that a baby is named after a Country Fire Authority brigade, but Emerald was last week surprised after a Kinglake couple did just that.
Joanne and Marcus Blyth named their daughter Emerald Lee after the CFA brigade who defended their home during the Kinglake fires in January.
Emerald Lee was born on Wednesday, 15 February at 1.15pm and weighed 2.7 kilograms.
Joanne was sitting at her mum’s house in Kilmore while her husband, with the help of the Emerald CFA, was fighting the fire, when she came up with the idea to name the baby Emerald.
“After all we had gone through and after everything Emerald CFA did for us it just seemed like the right thing to do,” she said.
Emerald CFA Captain Paul Yandle said when the brigade was told of the name, it was very surprised and honoured.
“It’s not something you hear about every day,” he said.
Capt Yandle said the Emerald brigade helped Marcus Blyth and several of his friends to protect the house from the fires on Thursday, 26, January.
He said Marcus and Joanne were well set up to stay and defend their house from the fire.
“They had water pumps, and the gas and power mains were turned off and the Blyths were ready and waiting for the fire to come through,” he said.
Capt Yandle said one of the precautions that the Blyths had taken was to evacuate Joanne a couple of days before the fire got close to the house because she was due to give birth within three weeks.
He said the couple’s house was surrounded by scrub, but the Blyths had cleared a circular area from around the house.
The worst part about the fire was that it was hard to tell how far away it was with a column of smoke coming towards the property.
Capt Yandle said the Belgrave CFA brigade was also on hand to help fight to save the Blyth’s property.
