Daniel Schiansky - Captain

Dan has been in the CFS for over 17 years, starting in Mannum.  His real job is as a maintenance technician with Bombardier Australia who look after the Adelaide trains.  Favourite drink is water believe it or not.  He likes eating pasta and riding his motorcycle.  Not at the same time.  Music-wise he’s an acca dacca (AC/DC) man, but it’s not all heavy going, with his favourite movie being “Love Actually”.   When he’s not working at maintaining trains or training CFS people at the State Training Centre, he volunteers his time as a fire-warden at the Indy car race on the Gold Coast.

Geoff Ellis - Lieutenant

Geoff has been part of the brigade for 7 years and is currently a Whitegoods Technician.  Need your fridge or stove

fixed?  Geoff’s your man.  He previously spent 8 years in the Australian Navy chasing Russians.  What he planned to do with them when he caught them is a matter for conjecture, but you can never find one when you want one.  He lists his pets as Ashley (see Ashley Ellis below, Geoff is his father) and his two dogs Jess and Ossie.  His favourite movie is

Kentucky Fried Movie and musical tastes are Pink Floyd and Queen.  Geoff figures he’s nearly a local now, having lived in the area for 20 years.

Anne McLean - Lieutenant

Annie has been in the CFS for over 7 years.  She is an Information Officer and Fire Fighter for National Parks and Wildlife S.A.  I guess that makes her the South Australian version of Smokey the Bear, or should that be Yogi Bear?

She lists her favourite food as Caesar salad and likes to drink lemonade with some form of additive, which wouldn’t be lime juice.  Pink is her favourite music artist, but not her favourite colour. Although she prefers movies like Ladder 49 and the Towering Inferno, she also lists The Holiday as being enjoyable.  Anne is also the training officer at Upper Sturt and gets a great deal of satisfaction seeing people she’s taught displaying their skills at an incident.

Steve Orr - Firefighter

Steve has lived in Upper Sturt since 1983.  His other job is a finance officer for University S.A.  He is currently, and has been for some time, restoring a 1974 Valiant ute with a view to one day drag racing it.  Steve’s rating system for eating out is based on the unique method of determining how good the sticky date pudding is.  He also enjoys a good medium rare sirloin as long as he doesn’t have to chase it across the room. Current favourite restaurant is at the Scenic Hotel at Norton Summit.  Favourite pastimes can thus be condensed into a series of “f” words - fast cars, food, and fighting fires.

Ashley Ellis - Firefighter

Ash or “probie” as he’s affectionately known, has been in the CFS for over 2 years.  His current occupation he says is “environmental warrior”. We’re thinking this is more about pulling out weeds than protecting whales against eager Japanese scientists.  Favourite movies include Hostel, House of Wax (just to see Paris Hilton come to a sticky end),

and Collateral.  Having an extremely easy going nature, Ash is often heard saying “It wasn’t me!”  ,and, it very rarely is.

Apart from occasionally sleeping through the pager going off, his attendance rate at incidents and events is exemplary.

Ash also currently holds the position of Health and Safety Officer. Finally, but by no means least, he’s a very good “inside” friend of Smokey the CFS koala.

James McLean - Firefighter

James has been with the CFS for over 7 years having joined at age 15.  He’s currently still doing uni and helping out at events held at the old governor’s residence in the Belair National Park.  He lists his favourite type of music as being contemporary rock and roll.  Definitely no doof doof.  Movie-wise however, he’s not quite so contemporary, with favourites being the Battle of Britain, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and the Great Escape.  His favourite pet is his dog.

James is currently the Logistics Officer and a bit of a tech-head.  He’s good with a digital camera and knows a fair bit about computer stuff.  His favourite saying is “Carpe Diem (seize the day) which roughly means “be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead” (old Scottish proverb).

Dave Southern - Firefighter

Dave is 55, a student and homemaker. He’s the resident encyclopaedia on legs, and a whizz at quiz nights.  Like James, he’s fond of quoting dead languages.  His favourite saying is “Dixit, fiat lux, et lux facta est.”   Closest I could get to a translations was: The Latin phrase fiat lux, from the Latin Vulgate Bible, is typically translated as "let there be light" when relating to Genesis 1:3. The full phrase is "dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux" ("And said God let there be light, and light was made".  Thanks to Wickipedia.  On Ash Wednesday, Dave was standing on a balcony at Upper Sturt and could see the flames just across the valley.  Luckily the wind changed direction and both Dave and Upper Sturt were saved.

Sam Baldwin - Firefighter

Sam has been with the brigade now for just under a year.  He’s at uni at the moment doing a degree in Laboratory

medicine, which he hopes to use to become a forensic scientist.  Because of his physical size, he’s a good guy to

have around at a traffic incident (not much can get past him, there isn’t room!)  His musical tastes tend to rock and metal with his favourite movies being Pulp Fiction and Super Troopers.  Sam has recently taken on the responsibility of

being the brigades communications officer.

Paul Martin - Firefighter

Paul is another long timer with over 9 years of service.  He is a Human Resource Consultant in real life and

shares his house with a border collie/kelpie cross called “Flash”.   He also lists his other occupation as “part time

Rock God” with his instrument of choice being the bass guitar.  Having once made a 147 break in snooker, he

lists his favourite movies as Easy Rider, Still Crazy, Crossroads and Full Metal Jacket.  The words that tend to fall

from his lips most often are:  “a pint of Guiness please” .  He’s open to sponsorship offers.

Our volunteers come from all walks of life and proudly donate their time to protect the community.

We’d like you to meet the few that were brave enough to be featured on this page: