Meet the new Lithgow Fire and Rescue station officer Steven Houghton.
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Mr Houghton has moved to Lithgow from Sydney and is excited to meet all the crew and get to know the residents of Lithgow.
“I’m quite excited and just thought it would be a good opportunity,” he said.
According to Mr Houghton the position had been vacant for some time, so he hopes to offer some stability by being the full time station officer.
“I’ll be in charge of doing all the administration work, training, and being a point of call for stakeholders,” he said.
“I will also be the commander if there is a major event such as a fire.”
Mr Houghton said he would like to conduct more school visits, visit the local nursing homes, and push for more smoke alarms to be installed in local residential homes.
There is plenty to do here so I’m excited to jump in,
- Steven Houghton
Mr Houghton has relatives in Bathurst, Dubbo and Rockley.
“I’ve got family around the area and in December my family will move to Lithgow as well,” he said.
Mr Houghton also hopes that he can keep up the partnerships between the different services in town such as the NSW Ambulance Service, Lithgow’s Volunteer Rescue Association, Lithgow RFS, and Lithgow Police.
Lithgow Fire and Rescue captain Melanie Palmer was keen to welcome the new station officer with open arms.
“The crew welcome Steve to the station and we look forward to working with him,” she said.
“He is motivated and keen to be involved within the community on all levels, he will brings such huge contributions to every aspect of the job both professionally and operationally.”
Mr Houghton is using the new Fire and Rescue Plus Plan re-branding to his advantage.
The Plus Plan is to show residents that Fire and Rescue do much more then just fight fires, they also protect the environment, counter terrorism, natural disaster and humanitarian relief, medical response and carry out prevention and education.
“I will have a big focus and push on prevention and education within the community,” he said.
“We are going to be doing more rescue training, trying to up the Lithgow rescue skills.”
Another factor that Mr Houghton wants to focus on is working with Ambulance NSW on medical response.
“I want us to have realistic training if we are the first responders, so we need to be skilled up in life support, able to use the defibrillators until the ambulance arrives,” he said.
Mr Houghton is currently pushing for more recruits in Lithgow, pushing for more cultures and inclusion within the group.
According to Mr Houghton, there are a range of people who offer their service in Lithgow, including six miners, a policeman and a horticulturalist.
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“It is a good opportunity, and you can work around your main career to do what suits you, it is very flexible,” he said.
“We do drills every Tuesday night for two hours so we can learn new skills and brush up on others.”
Mr Houghton hopes to do more prevention and preparedness workshops, stopping by randomly to do fire and safety checks on elderly and vulnerable communities.
Mr Houghton said sometimes residents get confused between the Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue.
“RFS is the combat agency for bush fire outside of fire districts whereas Fire and Rescue are normally tasked with protecting property within the township however we mutually support each other in these roles,” he said.
Mr Houghton said he will make sure Lithgow Fire and Rescue is prepared for everything.
“We have a HAZMAT van which can also be used as a mobile command centre, we have the two trucks, we’ve got a boat for dealing with spills in waterways.”
If interested in signing up you can contact the Lithgow Fire and Rescue base on 6351 3366.
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