Inara and Ian Fox have been made life members of the Berrigan Fire Brigade. But their story began long before the awards ceremony.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
You don’t have to look far to find evidence of the civic spirit that powers organisations such as the Berrigan Fire Brigade.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
With over a century of service between them, Ian and Inara Fox carry that spirit by the truckload, with their recent life memberships of the brigade coming as little surprise to anyone.
But their story begins long before that night.
The couple first crossed paths after a road accident landed Ian, then in his early 20s, at the Mooroopna Hospital.
The tragic accident took the lives of two of his brothers, and left Ian seriously injured.
“I think I was unconscious for 10 days — a fortnight or something like that,” Ian, 88, said.
A young nurse named Inara, born in Latvia and who migrated to Australia in 1947, had the task of caring for him.
Ian soon recovered, and the young couple began dating, later moving to a farm outside Berrigan after marrying in 1963.
In 1968, Ian decided to sign up with the Berrigan Bushfire Brigade, as it was known at the time.
“I had left school, and was on the farm with my uncle and my father,” Ian said.
“My uncle was the captain of the brigade, and I was only a young bloke, and he said, ‘I want you to join’.”
Ian vividly recalled one of the first fires he attended.
“We had two 200-litre tanks, on a ute, with a hand pump,” he said.
Being young, fit and a rookie at the time, Ian had the job of pumping water from the tanks so that his comrades could use the hose.
“Some of the things that we put fires out with were just amazing, really,” he said.
Inara, now 83, came on board later, joining the brigade in 1970.
“I only joined after we were married because I thought, ‘Well, I may as well go with the flow’,” Inara said.
Since then, the couple have enjoyed their fair share of memorable experiences, notably leading a procession of fire trucks at a NSW Rural Fire Service parade in Batemans Bay in around 1993.
It was a massive honour, Inara said.
“Coming from a little town, to think that we’d been appreciated, and they respect what we’re doing,” she said.
“It was just emotional more than anything, especially when those people started throwing flowers at us. I thought, ‘We’re not professionals, we’re just doing part of our job’. But then I said to Ian, ‘They must be really appreciative of what we do’.”
But their most treasured memory is of their time volunteering as RFS members at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
The couple helped police with security, checking bags at entrance gates to the Sydney Olympic Stadium to ensure potential weapons such as tacks and kitchen knives were confiscated.
However, one encounter with a famous Australian remains clear in Inara’s memory.
Inara and Ian while volunteering at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. To this day, they’ve kept their uniforms as keepsakes.
Photo by
Contributed
“We ended up working at the VIP gate, where all the athletes came through,” Inara said.
“This gentleman came through, and I said, ‘I know you, please may I look at whatever you have?’
“He turned around and said to me, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’
“I said, ‘Yes, I do Mr Paul Keating, you’re no different to the others, I’m just doing my job’.”
The couple also met other celebrities, including the American sprinter Maurice Greene, who would go on to claim the gold medal in the 100m sprint.
Ian said he always felt looked after by his brigade’s commanders and the RFS leadership.
“They looked after us for training, they sent us to different places, we did competitions, in Barooga, Gundagai, Batemans Bay,” he said.
Looking back on their time in the brigade, the couple said they would encourage anyone considering joining to reach out.
16°C