'Don't underestimate yourself': Fire captain up for statewide honour

Glenys Malatesta has had a hectic year. From fighting fires in Donnybrook, to cleaning up after the Kimberley floods. All the while training the next generation coming up in her wake.

Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. She’s been named a finalist for the highest individual award one can receive as a volunteer firefighter. The Murray Lang Bush Fire Service Award.

Of her 23 years involved with the Gelorup Bush Fire Brigade, she’s been captain for nine of them. A position she said she couldn’t have imagined when she was first inspired to join.

It was a split second where the simple ‘stop, drop and roll’ message became crucial.

“I was running my own nursery, and a gentleman came in. He was pouring fuel over his carburetor, and his son started the car up.

“The fuel splashed back all over the gentleman. He caught on fire, the car caught on fire. My actions were then to drop, stop, and roll him, and use whatever I had to smother him out.”

Her heroism that day grabbed headlines, and with it came the suggestion from colleagues to join the brigade.

“But I’m a woman,” she said.

Women weren’t strictly forbidden from joining Bush Fire Brigades in the year 2000, but it certainly wasn’t the done thing. When she first arrived at the station, she was told there were no separate toilets or change rooms for her. Determined as she is, she stuck around. Leading fundraising to get female facilities built.

“I thought, no, I’m going to do all this. Then I did. So don’t underestimate yourself as a woman.

“We didn’t have toilets, we didn’t have showers. Now I’m in charge of 25 plus males.”

One of those men is Fire Control Officer Jeff McDougall. He spoke very highly of Glenys’ leadership over the past nine years.

“She’s 200 per cent committed to everything she does,” he said.

“She doesn’t just get the boys together for a sausage and a bun. It’s a sausage and a bun with cheese and salad, and there’s drinks. It’s just all that extra stuff all the time.

“On the fire grounds it’s the same. We’re going to put out a fire, but before we do that, we’re going to discuss safety and we’re going to make sure everyone’s got the right PPE on. Everyone knows exactly what the job is.”

That meticulous leadership was what DFES were after when they asked her to help with the recovery after the flooding which devastated remote Kimberley communities in January. She led a group of ten South West volunteers to Fitzroy Crossing, where they helped to clean up damaged furniture, shoveling tons of mud, and inspecting houses for black mold.

The hardest part, Ms Malatesta said, was escorting evacuated residents back to see their now destroyed houses.

“It was heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking,” she said.

“These houses were up on stilts, and they’re turned completely sideways. Chalets were washed over the edge of banks.

“I just don’t see that town coming back. Never. It’s such a shame. Working with their community, they’re just such lovely people.”

It’s those different experiences which Ms Malatesta hopes will draw new people to the brigades. Currently, she said, the average age for a member of a Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade is 50 years old.

Determined to change that, she is regularly running events in schools and in the community, not only teaching the fire awareness skills which helped her save that man 23 years ago, but to encourage young people to join, and learn from the decades of experience her brigade has.

“There’s some senior people out there, they might have 40 years of knowledge. That’s great, but we’ve got to hand down that knowledge to the younger generation and take them under our wings.

“I’ve already got a predecessor, and I train him, train him, train him. That’s what it’s about, training someone up to take your place for the future. It takes a lot of time.”

While recruiting younger people might be an issue now, Ms Malatesta said that with the help of experienced career firefighters, and the community, she’s confident that country Bush Fire Brigades will be strong for years to come.

“We’re just like one big family.”