| Girls from the Central School senior years had an entertaining, and a bit wet due to leaky hoses, day being shown the basics of emergency management with a focus on using the towns fire truck and its equipment. Run by ‘Girls on Fire Inc’. which was started by Bronnie McIntosh who, through a Churchill Scholarship, studied overseas programmes designed to increase female and diverse participation in emergency management, such as the local fire brigade. Their motto “We believe that every young girl has a spark within,” is the basis for giving girls the opportunity to build their personal confidence and resilience and to change the way they view themselves and their place in their community. The programme also offers the idea of emergency services as a career path. As well as corporate sponsors such as the National Australia Bank and various Government emergency management agencies, Monash University, as a research partner, measures the impact of the Girls Fire & Resilience Program across resilience, fire management participation, recruitment and community engagement. As well as one day events Girls On Fire also run multi day camps that offer in-depth training involving event simulation from house fires to vehicle accidents. Photos— Top: Lulu demonstrating a useful skill in any setting, putting out a fire with a fire blanket Centre: Willow has a crack at using a commercially available fire extinguisher . |
Bottom: Miranda, with help, handles the fire hose which delivers water from the town’s brigade.
