At age 20, Peter Dickinson wanted to help when fires began on what would become known as Ash Wednesday – 16 February, 1983.
He approached a firefighting crew to ask if they needed help.
“They said, ‘can you operate a pump?’ and I said, ‘yeah, of course I can’,” Peter recalled.
Peter jumped onboard and began helping to battle fires in region 13.
“We were doing some asset protection and then the fire changed direction,” he said.
“I was at the wrong spot at the wrong time, as I put it.”
He was helping get people out of a home when a gas cylinder exploded.
“Next thing I know, basically I was on my backside, the thing blew up and thrown me in the air,” he said.
Peter was able to jump back up and keep helping to fight the fires.
“Later that night, I lean over to pick my napsack up and fell flat on my face,” Peter said.
He had hit his head on concrete when the explosion knocked him over and the adrenaline had kept him going.
After spending time recovering in hospital, two weeks after he was released he went and joined the Scoresby Fire Brigade.
He then moved to the Narre Warren Brigade, which he has served with since 1986.
“Once you’re in the service you can’t get it out of your blood,” he said.
“It becomes a family, you have 50,000 family members, what more can you want?”
