Denmark Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service founding member Oliver Wakka reflects on 60 years of service

When Oliver “Ollie” Wakka rushed out to fight fires as a founding member of the Denmark Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service 60 years ago, he could have only dreamed of the equipment the brigade has today. “We used to just go out in whatever we were wearing and in our own vehicles because we had nothing else,” Mr Wakka said. “We did have quite a few house fires that we attended but we had nothing to work with. “For the bushfires we used to use wet hessian bags or tear a green limb off a tree and use that.” Mr Wakka was recognised for his six decades of service to the local volunteer brigade at its 60th anniversary dinner at the Denmark Country Club on April 8. Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson and Department of Fire and Emergency Services deputy commissioner Craig Waters presented the awards on the night. Denmark VFRS captain Lee Shelley received his 10-year service medal, while three generations of the Hockley family were recognised for their service. Mr Wakka received his 60-year service award for what DFES described as a “lifetime dedicated to helping others”. The veteran volunteer has previously been awarded the Australian National Medal, the Queen’s Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, the WA Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service Medal, and the WA Volunteer Bush Fire Service Medal. Mr Wakka was an apprentice at a butcher shop in Denmark when his boss, among other business owners in town, decided to pitch in 100 pounds to form a bushfire brigade. Aged 21 at the time, he was among 15 other founding members who helped shape the brigade into the firefighting unit that it is today. “There was talk about forming a brigade around town when I was an apprentice butcher,” Mr Wakka said. “There were four people that were interested, business people they were, they all donated 100 pounds each to start the brigade off. “Mind you 100 pounds was a lot of money in those days as I was only earning about 12 pounds a week. “One of those business people was my boss and he asked if I would join, so I said, ‘yes’.“ Mr Wakka said the equipment they had “back in the day” was nothing compared with today’s appliances. The Denmark VFRS is now equipped with two trucks and attends structural fires, hazmat incidents, road crashes. Mr Wakka said membership across the region dropped when the bushfire brigades took on the role of responding to road crashes. “Some of the road rescues that we did, some of them were pretty horrific,” he said. “You don’t know what to expect . . . we lost members because of that because they just couldn’t handle that.” Mr Wakka was the brigade’s foreman for a short period of time but remained as a volunteer firefighter for most of his 60 years of service. “I used to spend a lot of time down at the station,” he said. “There were occasions when my wife would say ‘why don’t you take your bed down there, you might as well live there’. “If you got called out you had to go.” The 81-year-old no longer attends call-outs, instead helping at the station tending to the garden beds and keeping the facility tidy. “I don’t get involved in any call-outs nowadays,” he said. “I just look after the station, I’ve got gardens down there with flowers and lawns. “The firefighters, most of them are working so they can’t do it, they are busy enough with call-outs and you don’t want to drag them away to go and do gardens.” Denmark VFRS has responded to major road crashes and bushfires such as the February fire which destroyed four homes east of Denmark and threatened the townsite. Mr Wakka said the February blaze was the “scariest” bushfire in recent memory. “If we didn’t have the bushfire brigades, I think it would be disastrous for people,” he said. “A lot of people were evacuated and if it hadn’t been for the water bombers and the helicopters, we would not have stopped that fire. “There was no way we would have stopped that fire with just people on the ground because you can’t just go into these big karri forests and put out fires.”