Lindsay McHugh hasn’t felt the sand between his toes during summer for 18 years … since the day he popped out to buy a bottle of cream for dessert in 1997, in fact.
The former army officer spends the hot season on stand-by at South Morang fire station, waiting for a call-out to a nearby blaze.
“We’d just moved into the area and my wife had sent me out for a bottle of cream to have with dessert,” Mr McHugh said. “I popped my head into the station and, as they say, the rest is history.”
The CFA volunteer was quickly bestowed with the captain’s badge, a post he held for 18 years before stepping down this month to make way for a changing of the guard.
On June 1, the Plenty Road station joined just a handful of brigades to move to an integrated model, whereby it is manned during business hours by three paid, full-time firefighters to take the pressure off volunteers.
But the transition marks the end of Mr McHugh’s years at the helm, a turn of events that will allow the 59-year-old to return to summers at the beach and more time with his grandchildren, “the light of my life”.
Mr McHugh has witnessed great change.
“The brigade used to be in a very small tin shed in the middle of paddocks. Over a period of time, we’ve changed location, been given state-of-the-art equipment and our membership base has grown and changed.”
He said the CFA had been able to attract more women and people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
“The growth in the northern suburbs has been phenomenal. You need to provide more visits to schools, nursing homes and kindergartens, and there’s a larger emphasis on fire prevention.”
Mr McHugh will continue to serve as a volunteer.
