Reuse

Re-establishment of the Saue Volunteer Fire Brigade or how a cat got the logo from a tree.

Since the beginning of this year, a new volunteer fire brigade has been operating in the northern region – the Saue Volunteer Fire Brigade, which has already participated in 25 rescue events. It has two leaders – Alice and Riho Juurik, who, as their surname suggests, live under one roof and have two children.

“Leadership is of course a nice word, but in our association we believe that the association is one” family “and we have common goals that have been discussed and agreed among ourselves,” says Alice, and Riho adds that the main goal of the command is to ensure the highest quality and fastest possible assistance to professional rescuers in both response to challenges and prevention work. In our opinion, quality assistance is first and foremost ensured by good cooperation with both professional and other volunteers, thus contributing to a well-functioning integrated rescue network.

Journey into the world of rescue and lessons from the first challenge

Alice says that before joining the rescue team, she had long thought that, in addition to her other hobbies, she could do something that would contribute to society as a whole and would be challenging for her. “Even though my dad has worn a police uniform all his life and had a lot of patchwork clothes at home, the decision was made to go into a field that was completely foreign to me – rescue. I didn’t know any professional or volunteer rescuers either, so rescue seemed particularly intriguing. The idea was, of course, on my mind for a long time, until one day I contacted the volunteer coordinator of the Northern Rescue Centre and registered for the Level I training as a volunteer rescuer. I told my husband Riho and my best friend about everything after the training was over.

Husband Riho recalls Alice’s first challenge in the side street of their home on Christmas Day 2020: “She called me a few minutes after leaving home to get her car out of the way because it was in front of an ambulance.” I’d just got out of the plaster and rushed to the scene in a semi-conscious state, where it turned out that I was of no help to him or anyone else. It was as if I was on my feet, while Alice was already in action, giving vital information to the emergency services. Even Santa Claus, who had come to visit one of the families, was of more help, as he was giving directions to the rescue vehicles arriving at the intersection,” says Riho, who at that moment was driving Alice’s car back home, and then decided that he too would become a volunteer rescuer, even if he didn’t become active. “At the time, I thought I would take the training, if only to ensure the safety of my home and to be aware of what to do in the event of a fire.”

At a certain point, when they were joined by several other volunteer rescuers from Saue municipality, they realised together that they wanted to take another big step forward. “We had a great desire to deal with both the prevention and the operational side in a more coordinated and innovative way. So we set to work, and after a little research into the history of our region, we discovered that Saue had one of the largest volunteer fire brigades of the time – the Saue Volunteer Fire Brigade – until 1990, but that its activities had unfortunately died out due to a lack of new blood,” admits Alice.

Establishment of a command

Breathing new life into an association that had been shrouded in history was in essence the creation of a new komando, because the komando that had been operating at Saue Manor since 1925 was only a name. “Essentially, we set out to create a new association, and the biggest challenges were of course ‘having our own nest’ and finding funding, but as they say, difficulties can be overcome, and so today we have both a ‘nest’ and the funding to get started through personal investment,” says Alice, adding that one of the interesting challenges has been breaking the mindset that volunteers are competitors.

“Our aim is really to show that if we have common or similar goals, then working together will ensure the safety of the region many times better than competing. I can give a very good example of cooperation that works perfectly from our good neighbours in Saku, because we often carry out joint exercises with the Saku volunteer rescuers, we involve each other’s members in watches and we also cover each other in various prevention activities. They are a great example and support for us in building up the command,” says Riho.

Ensuring responsiveness

Of course, both equipment and rescue supplies are needed to ensure response capacity, but Alice and Riho say that people are even more important. “Volunteer rescuers often act in a rush. It’s a hobby for them and everyone contributes as much as they can. For us today, it is perfectly acceptable if sometimes a shift is left uncovered and we can’t go to the professional rescuers to help. 1. Until 1 January 2023, when we were awarded a response contract, the Saku Patrol Fire Brigade kindly opened its doors to us, where we were able to contribute to their patrols. From there, we also got into the habit of trying to man our watches every day at least from 7pm to 7am, but if some drivers or rescuers are able to work remotely at the same time, we do our best to be ready to respond during the day,” Alice and Riho say.

At the moment, 15 people have been formally accepted into the association and 3 are waiting for volunteer rescuer training. All members are active in one way or another – some are more involved in vigilance and response, others in prevention. “We ourselves think this is a very good result,” say Alice and Riho.

Recruiting new members is probably a concern for many companies, which Alice fully understands from her own experience, as many people coming into rescue from outside the field have the misconception that a volunteer rescuer has to contribute with round-the-clock watches, and do not realise that even three or four hours on watch can make a big difference. Equally important is the contribution to prevention, because not everyone has to put out a fire.

The association owns one fire truck, Saue 32. It is an ex-French rescue vehicle from the Meurthe and Moselle region and is a Renault Magirus G270.

Today, the command is based in Segu Street in Saue, where there is a large warm tent for the car and a two-roomed warming hut for the members themselves. “One of the rooms has turned into a living room and the other is a bedroom. We have not reacted from home and we are trying to keep it that way,” says Alice. “By responding from the command post, people are more responsive to challenges and are more ‘on the spot’, which also allows us to plan our time better so that we don’t have to be ‘on call’ all the time and moving around in the bushes,” adds Riho.

Big plans for the future

In the longer term, the company aims to build its very own company building, with a blueprint for a new building already in place and, of course, continuing to upgrade existing equipment.

“The most important of our goals for the near future is definitely to improve the quality of our work, and to this end we have our own training and education plan. Regardless of the seriousness of the incidents, it must be understood that a large number of them involve, in one way or another, the lives and property of people and must not be gambled with. Why do I say ‘gamble’? Because if we do it for the wrong reasons and in an inadequate way, that’s the way it is, and our aim is to avoid it,” says Riho.

How a cat got a logo from a tree

The logo of the Saue Volunteer Rescue Team symbolises the association through different elements. On the top of the logo, two tools form a cross: a fireman’s axe and a pole-axe. In the middle, at the intersection of the swords, is a cat carrying a fire helmet. The axe and the pickaxe are the classic tools of the firefighters “trade and, as the symbol of the association, convey the members” desire to work and contribute to the safety of society by being ready to “grease their palms”. It also symbolises expertise in the field of rescue. Asked why the cat, Alice and Riho say that when the team came together to come up with the logo concept and realised that for ordinary people, rescue is usually associated with two themes: putting out fires and rescuing cats from the tree, the idea was that, just as cats have nine lives, the Saue Volunteer Fire Brigade would first come to life again. “Secondly, a cat always lands on its paws, so a cat wearing a red life helmet is a symbol of landing softly on its paws, no matter what difficulties or challenges we face,” Alice and Riho look to the future with confidence.