 So my name is Bryce Lewis. I'm 18 years old. I'm a volunteer at Hamilton Urban Fire Brigade. I am currently studying at Montevay College as a VKAL student and doing a school based apprenticeship as an agricultural mechanic. So what I got started in CFA was through my dad. So he was a volunteer for 30 something years and then my brother joined and then I came in when I was 11 and joined in the juniors as a runner and been here since 11 years old. So the CFA running team that's pretty much go to competitions and you run as a junior and I ran from age of 11 to 15 and then I coach from 15 onwards to now. So I've done a few seasons. For the last seven years I've been on two camps. So one was Nationals which is where teams from around Australia and also New Zealand come to Australia and they compete in different running style competitions. So we represented Victoria in 2011. We went up to Sydney and spent the week up in Sydney and competed up there. We didn't go too well but the main thing was I met so many people from around the state and still actually keep in contact for years on. Another course I went on was Challenge. That was a major one I went on in January 2014. Once you start to meet people like that you actually do have mates all around Victoria. It's not just from your town, not from just your district or area. I joined at 16 years old to become a firefighter and then since then I've been going through different courses. So an example of my courses that I've done would be Breathing Apparitions, Low Structure and Wildfire. So Breathing Apparitions pretty much means you can go into a burning house. Low Structure means on how to fight a fire that's a burning structure. Wildfire just pretty much means like a grass fire or bush fire or anything like that. So I've only been qualified for two years which means I've been at a great deal of experience on major fires. I've been to a number of burn-offs. A few have gotten almost out of hand which is quite overwhelming. Sometimes when you have flames, well above the truck. She was adrenaline rush. She was an experience that's for sure. In the last two bushfire seasons I've been away on a few strike teams and one strike team when I was down at the Kurung. We got down there. The fire was almost out but there was a lot of blacking out to do. And so we got to see helicopters go over and they were spotting where the fire was and where the front line was. And that was an experience having a helicopter fly right above your head and a few hundred metres off the ground. So one night I had a hazardous chemicals job at seven o'clock at nine and then went from then to four in the morning. So that was quite an experience I was tired of anything but had a full day at school. And then two hours of training afterwards for senior brigade. Like while doing hazmat awareness you're also learning about chemicals. Whether it's at work or school you're also dealing with chemicals as well. So it does tie in. It helps everything. Being a CFA I've done a few leadership courses. That's also helped with school work and also coaching with the juniors. Because you have to be organised. You have to be planning what you want to do. And you have to manage your time more than anything else. So in addition to that I would train twice a week with the juniors and then also one night a week with the senior brigade. So if I do find a CFA and school crossover or CFA often they'll sometimes change the courses. Change the dates if need be. Either that or get on the next course. I've missed a little bit of school but they also make allowances because they let you catch up on the work and also gain back the time you need to do active school. Mum's a little bit worried but she knows I'm with a great bunch of people. They know I'm with someone I can trust and everything like that. So she knows I'm safe within that aspect. There's a lot of times where mum was just sitting up. She was just about to go to bed and it's just, oh can you go to the station? Ah yes, coming now. So it was a lot of love strain then. A lot of my friends they are actually from the CFA and they actually volunteer here as well. The ones who aren't they actually find it really quite cool. But I do come to CFA and am up at well all the hours of the night. And then go to school the next morning they find that's really something quite different. For someone that's at school and they want to join CFA they can either get on the internet and have a look or come down to the station. It is challenging but worthwhile. You do have to time manage that's for sure. It's not always CFA. It's not like you get home from school and you're straight at it. You've got probably one night a week of training and then you've got courses as well. So just come down to the station and give it a shot.