A new senior leader has been appointed to oversee CFA operations in District 14.
New CFA leader: Assistant Chief Fire Officer Christian Thorley
CFA's Christian Thorley was appointed as District 14 Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) and commenced in the role earlier this year.
Christian began his CFA journey at 23-years-old, when he acted on a friend's suggestion to give firefighting a shot.
"It was never on my radar growing up, but my decision to join CFA was the best I've ever made," he said.
After being accepted as a new CFA recruit, Christian moved to Ballarat where he served Ballarat City Fire Brigade for the first five years of his career.
"After my time at Ballarat I moved to Corio Fire Station and spent the next 11 years working between there and Geelong."
He developed an interest in CFA's training portfolio and moved into a leadership role which oversaw a significant amount of work around CFA's recruit programs at Victorian Emergency Management Training Centres (VEMTC) and CFA HQ in the Training Department
Christian's decision to move into his current leadership role in District 14 was motivated by his passion to support volunteers in their role of protecting lives and property.
"My role is to provide the required level of support to all of our volunteers to do what they are passionate about," he said.
"I enjoy coordinating and providing advice to our volunteers to help them continually support their local communities in emergencies.
"This also involves supporting our great team of local CFA Commanders, Brigade Administrative Support Officers and other staff who liaise directly with brigades. All of which help them meet service delivery requirements day in, day out."
He said he cannot wait to meet many new volunteers and staff involved in emergency management within District 14.
"It's important to me to build great working relationships with people," Christian said.
"I've already met many inspiring people who serve their communities as part of CFA because it's what they love to do."
The role will provide an opportunity for Christian to lead a busy outer-metropolitan CFA District.
"I'll be working hard, particularly to further strengthen the relationship between CFA and our partner agencies such as Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), which in turn will improve our service to the community," he said.
Fire Rescue Victoria Assistant Chief Fire Officer Western District Two James Dullard congratulated Christian on the appointment.
"I look forward to working closely with Christian and his team at CFA to help keep communities in Melbourne's outer west and beyond safe," ACFO Dullard said.
"Christian has an impressive record as a firefighter, and I have no doubt he will do an outstanding job of leading his district during his secondment to CFA," ACFO Dullard said.
"It's important that CFA connects with its communities to provide them with vital safety messaging, said Christian
"Many communities within this patch are on the urban fringe, so I encourage everyone to understand the risk and plan ahead of days with elevated fire danger.
"Remember, if you live next to grassland and a grassfire starts, walk at least two streets back and never drive if you can see smoke or fire."
CFA acknowledges and gives thanks to the outgoing District 14 ACFO David Harris for his great work leading the District over the past two years.
David will continue his CFA career in an ACFO role at CFA Headquarters.
