By LIAM DURKIN
THE sense of ‘helping us to help you’ was seen in Trafalgar in the lead up to Christmas, with the local fire brigade rescuing a young girl trapped inside a car.
Members of the Trafalgar Fire Brigade were able to pry youngster Kennah Buhmann to safety thanks to the use of a forceable entry tool kit, which was purchased through donations by the community.
The brigade voted to use the donations to purchase the tool kit to gain emergency entry into cars.
On the day of the incident at Trafalgar’s Shell service station, it is understood the car door closed while the keys were still in the ignition, forcing the doors to become locked due to a mechanism seen in many modern day cars, trapping young Kennah and her dog Gypsy.
After getting called out, the Brigade was able to see Kennah and Gypsy to safety quickly and efficiently.
The Brigade then made sure Kennah and her family, who were from outside the region, were okay, staying by their side in support.
Kennah got to explore the fire truck, and later received a ‘Captain Koala’ teddy bear in the mail from the Brigade.
Showing her appreciation, Kennah penned a heartfelt letter to thank the Brigade for all they had done for her.
While those who come across local brigade donation tins in their community may wonder just how much difference a few dollars or even cents might make in the long run, Trafalgar Fire Brigade secretary Kathy Geisler said every little bit helped – and in this case, the community had in turn helped the Brigade in seeing a potential tragedy avoided.
“It shows them where their funds go to, if they put 20 cents, 15c, 5c, whatever, in our donation tin, all of that gets collated and it goes toward equipment to help out the Brigade help out their broader community,” she said.
“When they put their spare change in the tins these (entry tool kits) are the sort of things we can go out and purchase.”
Those interested in joining a local brigade can register their interest on the CFA website.
