ARARAT Fire Brigade Juniors have helped distribute about 1700 postcards to mailboxes as part of a Country Fire Authority project.
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The postcards urged residents to take part in an online survey as part of research on community attitudes and awareness of volunteer firefighters.
The Country Fire Authority has also had members walking the streets of Ararat asking people to participate in a short in-person survey.
District 16 operations manager Bernie Fradd said firefighters had received a good level of feedback so far but some groups of people were underrepresented.
“We’re just trying to get a idea on what the local community of Ararat know about, and think about, the fire brigade,” he said.
“Fire brigades are volunteer based and it’s important that we reflect the communities we serve and protect.
“We’re trying to make sure that the community understands what we do and that we’re doing what they want us to do.”
Mr Fradd said the early responses indicated that most people had a basic idea of what the fire brigade did but not the whole range of activities.
“We have got a about 160 responses back so far and we have also had the Juniors distributing postcards, so we’re waiting for them to come back in,” he said.
“At the moment we don’t have many responses from the 18 to 35 age group.
“If we can get more of those responses, it would give a better cross section of the community.”
Ararat Brigade Captain Greg Taylor said he was particularly interested to see how much the community actually knows about the brigade.
“It’s easy to take the local fire brigade a bit for granted sometimes, but you know we never really stop working across the whole year to make sure that everything is ready to go when that call comes through - emergency or a false alarm we are always ready to roll,” he said.
To access the survey, visit the Ararat Fire Brigade Facebook at www.tinyurl.com/araratfb to contribute your thoughts on the brigade’s events and activities.
The survey closes July 31.