ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A Betoota Grove fireman-in-training has complete his first lights-on sirens-on lunch run to the local pizza chain restaurant.
Making a quick trip down to the shops in a screaming firetruck is a right of passage for every firefighter and this morning, it was Matthew Lauder’s turn.
The 22-year-old said he’d been a to plenty of fires so far but this was the first time they all piled into the truck to go get lunch.
“As we all known in town, the Grove Arterial Road can be a nightmare, now that school’s gone back,” he said.
“And as firefighters, we don’t have a lot of time to just sit around. So, we put the sirens on to go get lunch from time to time. We leave the other truck and half the crew back at the station house, plus if it’s really bad, they’ll send other trucks from other stationhouses around town,”
“So it’s not like we’re putting anybody in danger by doing this.”
Lauder’s testimony has all but confirmed the urban myth that workers in our first responder community sometimes take liberties with their siren use – especially when it’s between them and lunch.
The Advocate canvassed a few locals outside our Daroo Street newsroom for their opinion on police, fire and ambulance crews doing this.
None of them really cared – except for a short-haired elderly woman and her pathetically meek husband.
More to come.
