Teen fights to save lives
Published Date: 22 Jan 2013
Summary
Daily Liberal By Abanob Saad
SUMMER holidays mean travel, relaxation and a catch-up with family and friends for most young people.
For one Coonabarabran teenager this summer was a baptism of fire.
The Daily Liberal met with 19-year-old Natalee Trow at the Coonabarabran rescue centre and listened to her journey into the Coonabarabran Fringe Rural Brigade.
It all started as a little girl growing up in a family of emergency workers.
Ms Trow's father was a police officer, her mother a nurse and another family member a paramedic.
"I saw the good things they did for people so I decided to be a firefighter," she said.
She said whenever her father went to a call out she pleaded with him to join but he refused, caring for her safety.
Growing up she watched several firefighter movies and they gave her an ideal role model - heroic and brave.
Just before she turned 17, her dream came true and she finally joined the Coonabarabran Fringe Rural Brigade.
"Why wouldn't you want to join? You're helping people and you get a cool uniform," she said.
"The greatest part is that you don't get paid and you volunteer your time, sleep, strength and everything you have to help others."
Ms Trow said she had moved to the Northern Territory for work and returned home at the "perfect time" just as the Warrumbungle fires began.
As she recalled the many times she put her life on the line and faced ferocious fires to save lives she was visibly moved.
"These are the most intense fires I've ever dealt with," she said.
"I've seen them on TV but fighting it is unimaginable and you don't know what's it like till you are on the ground and it's right in front of you.
"You can't explain it."
The Daily Liberal asked how she coped with the extreme heat, she said she was scared of the blaze that was taller than her.
However when the adrenalin kicked in she went into the heat and did her best, not thinking of herself but of protecting the lives of others.
After fighting the blaze, several houses and properties were lost as the fires ripped through them.
Some places were too dangerous to stay and nothing was salvaged.
"You don't know what to feel," she said.
"My heart sinks. All these questions start to come to mind, like couldn't I have stopped it?
"I dealt with it by saying to myself, I'm going in the next fire and will do better. I missed that one, I'll save this one."
Most people were surprised she was a professional fire fighter because of her young age and being a woman.
"When I first joined, my friends thought I was crazy," she said.
"Why would you go out there putting your life at risk?"
Ms Trow encouraged more young people to join the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) and experience the "joy of saving a life, in uniform".
"If I can do it, anyone can," she said.
"Nothing beats knowing you've tried your best and saved a life."
