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In our ‘Two of us’ series we ask two people who know each other well to share insights about each other.
In early 2024, Helen Henderson accompanied her teenage daughter Scarlett to a Wandin Fire Brigade open day to support Scarlett’s future dream of pursuing a career with Forest Fire Management Victoria. But Helen felt so welcomed and encouraged by brigade members that she joined as well.
Scarlett Henderson
Wandin Fire Brigade had an open day on Australia Day last year. Mum and I went down and the members were showing everybody around. We told them I was interested in firefighting as a career. They set us on the pathway of how to put it in an expression of interest and what to expect in the next couple of months. The brigade was really helpful and welcoming with everything.
Obviously, with me being 15 or 16, I was very nervous and the brigade members were all adults so I was a bit scared. Initially, I think mum was going to come with me for the first few months and then she was going to just kind of fade away, but instead she turned out to love it and she joined up too. So, we’ve just continued on together.
It’s been really good to have someone to talk about everything. We have our own little briefings after meetings and after training sessions. Being able to talk through incidents and sharing our different experiences has been good too.
I have three siblings and mum is always doing something with each of them. So to be able to have this as our own little thing has been really good. Every Wednesday we’re up there together. It helps us spend a bit more time together in the busy life of school, work, football and different hobbies. It just gives us our own little personal time.
The whole of General Firefighter training was memorable. Being able to go through the course and actually doing our final assessment together; that was a really good day. We even had one of our members volunteer to drive us down for the assessment. That whole day was pretty memorable. I loved doing the whole course with my mum.
Mum definitely pushes me to step out of my comfort zone, as they all do at Wandin. She’s always encouraging me to sign up for things, try different things and different versions, so that’s been really handy to have someone to actually push me like that.
And when we’re driving to a callout, I’m always first out of the car. Mum is always saying, ‘Now, you’re getting on the truck, this is your turn to go on the truck.’ So, she’s always pushing me.
I really admire mum’s will to push on and learn new things at her age. Being able to start a whole new skill set in emergency response and helping people and fitting it into her busy schedule is pretty impressive.
I also admire mum’s resilience and courage. She’s just a great mum and it’s so impressive that she’s been able to learn all of these new skills.
I definitely see us sharing this experience in the long term. I think we’ll be in this for probably the rest of our lives. Apart from the actual firefighting side of things, I just love having that community and being able to go there together with mum.
Even if we were not operational, I think we’ll still be there for a long time. If my career takes off as a park ranger or in forest fire management, I think I would definitely still be at Wandin with mum when I can, just to be able to share that experience with her.
Helen Henderson
Scarlett had been very interested in becoming a park ranger. We didn’t really know much about Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) at that point. It was more all about being a park ranger and she did some work experience. That’s when she learned that perhaps she was more interested in the hands-on part of it, which was FFMVic.
They were the ones that suggested that being a CFA volunteer would get her a lot of recognition on her resumé. It’s just a really good knowledge base when it comes to fire behaviour. So we went along to the local open day at Wandin Fire Station.
We’ve got a lot of neighbours that are long-term members. The station has always been there, and we’ve always supported them, but we’d never thought that we would ever be a part of it.
You will not hear me say a bad word about this brigade. From the very first day every single person welcomed us with open arms, and they just couldn’t wait to share their knowledge. They were incredibly encouraging and I just found it exciting.
At that point I was still just mum, pushing my daughter out of her comfort zone, heading towards something that she was keen on for a career. That’s how it all got started. The brigade gave us all the information for the expression of interest and it rolled from there.
Volunteering together has brought us closer by having that common interest. All through life we’ve had common interests as well. I have with that with all my kids. I’ve been a single mum of four for 15 years, so you just try to spend that individual time with each one. Scarlett’s three siblings are so supportive of our volunteering. They get very excited when we receive a callout and are really in awe of the knowledge and commitment required to be a CFA volunteer. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some more Hendersons joining in the future.
I didn’t realise what was missing from my life. I didn’t feel like I had a void that needed filling until I went along and met all these beautiful people. It just brought back this spark for me.
I would never have considered becoming a firefighter. I was literally just there to support Scarlett. But signing up myself, I put that down to the encouragement from the brigade. They are the ones who have encouraged me and in turn I’ve encouraged Scarlett.
We had a fire in our local area that was quite large. On this particular night, we got a callout and I was in my pyjamas, so I dropped Scarlett at the station. Then I got home and we got another callout and I thought ‘Oh my God, I have to go now’.
We ended up being at the same fire. Scarlett was hands-on and I was down in the control point doing the scribing. I remember Scarlett walking past me at one stage, I’m getting emotional just thinking about it… it’s just the pride, seeing her there with our members, and we were both so busy. It was very surreal to think that we were at this major incident together. I was just so incredibly proud and just thought, ‘You go girl’.
I find I learn a lot from Scarlett. She picks up a lot of things that I perhaps don’t. Then there are other times she’ll say to me, ‘Mum, I don’t understand this or that’, and I’ll say, ‘Oh really? I took that one in’. We really do bounce off each other.
It might be age-related, but Scarlett can sometimes lack a bit of confidence. I think she’s come out of her shell an awful lot. I have that little bit more confidence, and am able to talk to anyone, anywhere; I’ve done volunteering in the past. I’ve seen Scarlett grow a lot in that area, so I think perhaps I complement her in that regard, encouraging her to step out of her comfort zone.
As much as I love volunteering, I don’t think I would get as much out of it without Scarlett. I think it’s the fact we’re doing it together and it’s something that I can share with her, and I’m incredibly proud of her for doing it. I think that’s what I get out of it the most.
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