Local farmers will get a lesson or two about recycling their chemical containersand fire safety during the Mangrove MountainRural Fire Brigade’s Open Day.
The band of volunteer firies will host a drumMUSTER collectionin line with an open day at their headquarters on Bloodtree Road, on the 22th September.
Mangrove Mountain Rural Fire Brigade Deputy Captain Andy Schneider said it was an opportunity for farmers to learn more about drumMUSTER while also seeing what volunteers do.
“Local farmers don’t know what benefits drumMUSTER gives them and how we can protect the environment,” he said. “So we try and meet them at the Open Day and talk them through it and say ‘whenever you want we’re always here to help you.’”
“The whole Mangrove Mountain area is full of agriculture. There are some citrus farms, vegetable farms and we have cropping in the region for animals.”
The station has more than doubled their drum intake since holding their first drumMUSTER Open Day in 2010. They’re also the only site in the Gosford region, collecting more than 2600 containers since first starting 10 years ago.
Mangrove Mountain Rural Fire Brigade Captain Rob Carraro said being tucked away in the sleepy village it was sometimes difficult to attract people during open days.
“It’s not in an area where anyone drives past and says ‘what’s going on here,’ so we try and promote our service along withdrumMUSTER as much as we can,” he said.
“It’s good now we can organise something for chemical users any time under arrangement.”
Andy said six firefighters are trained drumMUSTER inspectors and are ready to take in your drums any day of the week. He said they should be clean with lids off and be free of residue.
“You don’t have to wait for an advertisement or an open day,” he said. “The key point is the people are afraid to wait until whenever drumMUSTER is on. They don’t know whydrumMUSTER is important to them.”
“We’re not a typical organisation open during the standard operating hours like 8-5pm. Just give us a call and we take the drums any time.”
Andy said all money collected from inspecting containers goes towards buying gear and equipment for the team.
“Some of the additional emergency safety equipment we may require we’ll purchase just to make our own lives easier, like road flares for car accidents,” he said. “At the moment we’re considering an electric door opening.”
“It’s just easier to press a button and the thing goes up and you drive the truck out and you’re already on the road. It’s just saving minutes but at the end of the day saving minutes can save lives.”
For any further information on the drumMUSTER program, call 1800 008 707 or log on to www.drummuster.com.au.
12/09/2012