Who is the George Town Fire Brigade Chief
Andrew Taylor has been in the fire service for around 40 years and has held the position of Brigade Chief within the George Town Fire Brigade since 1999.
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"It all started because I wanted to do a first-aid course and my sister worked for the local doctor surgery," Mr Taylor said.
"I ended up joining the ambulance service as well.
"It was natural to join the ambulance and then the fire service at work.
I also was part of an emergency response team so that service all came together and it was really good to be able to help the community."
In the past 40 years, Mr Taylor has worked within the George Town community and despite being faced with many challenges and threats day to day, he says he has enjoyed every second of it.
"It's been great, particularly in recent years," he said.
"First of all, it's learning skills and learning different things.
"You don't appreciate what you don't know, particularly as you start out in your career as a volunteer.
Mr Taylor said he has particularly enjoyed imparting skills to younger volunteers and building resilience within the community.
"We have got an amazing bunch of young people, and they are our future at the end of the day," he said.
What was the culture like of the George Town Brigade in 2018?
Last week The Examiner ran an article which described a previous 'toxic culture' within the George Town Fire Brigade.
Five former volunteers spoke about alleged bullying, sexism and an alleged indecent incident.
Speaking to The Examiner, in regards to that time period, Mr Taylor said there had been individual cases within the George Town Fire Brigade's history that were not good.
"It's not a time we are proud of, but they were individual cases," he said.
"They were fully investigated by the department and the TFS, so that wasn't by us.
"I escalated those in most cases to the department and the department did their investigation accordingly.
I was not privy to that, I was excluded from that, and that is appropriate."
Former volunteer Cassey Emami alleged she had been the subject of sexist remarks.
"I was quite sexualised as a person," she had previously said.
"I've always had a lot of sexual comments made towards me from multiple people."
Asked if there had been a culture of sexism, Mr Taylor said the brigade had addressed those individual cases through appropriate reviews.
Why was Cassey's alleged offender not charged?
While attending a fire in 2018 with another male volunteer, an alleged indecent incident occurred.
Mr Taylor said it was his understanding a full and thorough investigation was undertaken by DPFEM and the TFS.
"The DPFEM was the branch that did that investigation, but again, I haven't got those reports," he said.
"I actually took that matter to TFS and raised that to TFS, to escalate it and then after that I wasn't included in any investigation."
Mr Taylor said there was nothing under his watch that he saw physically.
"The events allegedly occurred under my watch as brigade chief as it did with the other officers but I'm not at liberty to discuss because I don't know," he said.
Why was Cassey and the alleged offender in the same vehicle post incident?
After her alleged indecent assault incident, Ms Emami said she was told not to be in the same proximity with her alleged offender.
"That never ever happened, I was still going on call outs with him, and I was still being sexually harassed," Ms Emami said.
When asked how Cassey and her alleged offender could have still been in the same vehicle post incident, Mr Taylor said an investigation process took place and individuals were stood down as soon as he was advised by the department.
"If that's happened, I'm unaware as to why and how that's happened and there hadn't been any instruction by TFS or DPFEM at that point in time that those parties were not to be there or not to be together," Mr Taylor said.
"I don't know whether that was in the very early stages or not, I don't know but that wouldn't have been under our control.
"Certainly as a leadership group and me as a brigade chief, would never have permitted that had we known what was what was going on."
How long after the alleged incident did an investigation take place?
Mr Taylor said:
"The investigation started pretty much straight away, but it took an inordinate amount of time.
"Some of these I suspect are complex and they have to apply whatever they apply to it.
"That's one of the issues that we have as volunteers is that we take too long.
"The department takes too long to do those investigations. I honestly can't remember."
Aware of other examples of people leaving due to bullying?
Mr Taylor said he was not aware of any other incidents, but said people may choose to share stuff that he may not be privy to.
"Under my watch since 1999, there has been nothing swept under the carpet," Mr Taylor said.
Under my watch since 1999, there has been nothing swept under the carpet
- Andrew Taylor
"Any matters that are being brought up to me and all my leadership team, we escalate straight to the region. Our due course is through to the district officer and then the district officer to the regional chief.
"I would ask for the opportunity to know about some things absolutely, but once there's the nature of those sorts of events, that's outside my control.
"I genuinely have escalated those events straight through to the region. So that's the normal routine that we have."
Mr Taylor said there had been no events of bullying or harassment in recent years.
Do you think people would be too scared to speak out?
Mr Taylor said he was certain no-one would be scared to speak out about their grievances, and said the current cohort of volunteers included a resilient bunch of young people and has worked on creating an open environment.
He said the group will have meetings at the start of every training session to discuss how they are travelling.
"I don't know what else we can do as a leadership group to understand what those risks and those profiles are like within how people are feeling," Mr Taylor said.
"I honestly believe there's every opportunity for our people to raise matters.
"There's not just the brigade that they can raise that with, but I think the cohort we've got now is second to none.
"We've undertaken some additional training and that's across the board in Tasmania, not just this brigade.
"The fire service has undertaken equity and diversity training, bullying and harassment training and that's been rolled out amongst a number of stations, career and volunteer so my personal view may differ from some others.
"We see each other so regularly. I think we'd get to know if there were those issues and I honestly don't believe there have been."
Could things have been different if training was introduced earlier?
Mr Taylor said he didn't know the answer to that question.
"I think the world is a very different place," he said.
"The world has changed and I think that's what we have tried to do.
"TFS has enabled some opportunities for us to do that and we've taken those opportunities on board.
We could go back to the 1970s and the 1960s and we could look at what was acceptable behaviour then and that's nothing like what it is today.
"The thing for us is we've taken onboard the opportunities that they've genuinely given us and to that end, we've got a very different brigade now than what we had some years ago.
"I'd love to think we would have done that training in 2010 had we thought it was really appropriate.
"I don't think our forethought was there as a management.
"That's all changed radically in the last five to 10 years ... but we have come a long way and that is what we have introduced.
Has there been a cultural change within the brigade?
Mr Taylor said he has been working hard to create a cultural shift and has tried to create an environment with the current brigade for that to occur.
"My values have never changed," he said.
"I would like to think that those values have come through the brigade and it creates the opportunity for them to blossom ultimately.
"This brigade has a very proud tradition. In the officer group there is 120 years of experience.
"We need to recognise the commitment from these youngsters that we are seeing come through.
We have 34 members, 14 are between the age of 18 and 30, and of those, five are female.
"I think that's a really positive message that we want to get out there that you know, they are feeling safe, they are able to to work and actually do some real good in this community
What is the current culture like?
Gabby Barnard, Kylie Sheriff, Tracey Oliver and Travis Sincley have been part of the fire service for around three years and described the current culture as "warm and supportive".
Ms Sheriff said her family has always been involved within the George Town community and she wanted to give back and decided to join the brigade three years ago.
"I've loved it," she said.
"The people, the atmosphere, the adrenaline of going out to jobs and helping people.
"You feel really good about yourself and what you've been able to achieve and people are really thankful for that as well.
"This is the safest place I have ever felt."
This is the safest place I have ever felt
- Kylie Sherriff
Gabby Barnard said she was always interested in joining the TFS, having previously started out with the SES and said she has enjoyed the camaraderie within the George Town Fire Brigade.
"We look out for each other," she said.
"Everyone's willing to share their experience and actually give everyone a go. Helping the community, that experience we get, it's very fulfilling as well.
"We're all supporting each other. Out on the job we look out for each other all the time, always getting each other's back and willing to share that knowledge and experience and see each other grow.
"I think that's been the biggest thing for me - to see other people grow."
Ms Barnard joined as an 18-year-old and said she has never had any issues and has been welcomed with open arms since day one.
"From a training aspect everyone was willing to get in and teach me," she said.
"I have felt really overwhelmed with everyone's support and training and now I'm also training others to give that back to some of the newer members as well.
"We share some really great afternoons as a brigade here outside of our jobs and normal training as well.
"It's also really important to debrief from some of those harder jobs or more difficult jobs.
"We're surrounded by mates and friends that support each other."
Travis Hinkley started with the fire brigade as a junior in 2011 and progressed through the ranks before joining the army in 2016.
After his time with the army, he decided to give Mr Taylor a ring.
"Being able to work with a team young and old, both male and female, it doesn't matter who you are, you're all accepted," Mr Hinkley said.
"To be able to turn up in the truck with so many different people and do a job and do it well is extremely satisfying.
"I came here and was welcomed with open arms straight away. When I went through all my training to get back up to speed, everyone was willing to jump in and help.
"At the end of the day we come back from work, sit around and have a can of Coke, a chat, go home and calm down.
"We come around for barbecues, have dinner every training night and we'll get together as a team.
Casey Oliver became involved because he had mates in the fire service and encouraged him to join.
"I just wanted to help out the community," he said.
"Just seeing such a great atmosphere and the work they did in the fire ground was just amazing, so I thought I want to be a part of that.
"You're always accepted in and and shown the ropes and you never felt like you know nothing.
"You get taken under someone's wing and they show you what needs to happen and it's just great to get on the truck with such diverse people and being able to do the job do so successfully."
Let down by the department
The George Town Fire Brigade and Tasmanian Retained Volunteer Firefighters Association say they have been let down by the department since the publication of the story in The Examiner.
Chris Liddell, Northern TRVFA President and George Town Fire Brigade volunteer said the department had failed to publicly support the brigade.
"It's had some negative effects within the brigade and within the community," Mr Liddell said.
"We're a small town, we're a small community, and we've got a lot of newer and younger members that are now facing questions regarding that and they weren't even in the brigade at that time.
Mr Liddell said the brigade wanted the department to share a story about the current culture and atmosphere and was under the impression the Department would release a public media statement on Friday.
"Unfortunately on Friday they decided to renege on that, we can't be sure why. Their wording at the time made it sounds like they were more concerned about the TFS overall image as opposed to coming to bat for the volunteers.
"They have let us down in this, they couldn't come to support one brigade on a matter like this and something that affects us so deeply, and that's what we are incredibly disappointed about.
"We had our regional chief, we had our district officer come down and they are on face value, very supportive.
"They are fans of all the volunteer brigades in this region in the Northeast, but it's publicly what they are not wanting to do for us now is what we find disappointing.
"All of us are copping these questions out in the public," he said.
George Town Fire Brigade Chief, Andrew Taylor, said wellbeing support by the counsellors and psychologists had been amazing.
"As for the department supporting Georgetown, we've been left to our own devices," Mr Taylor said.
The Examiner asked the DPFEM if they had pulled out of issuing a public statement, and what they have done to support the George Town Fire Brigade.
Tasmanian Fire Service chief officer Dermot Barry he recognised this was a complex and challenging situation for all concerned.
"Additional support services including specialist resources such as external psychological and wellbeing services were provided to members and continue to be made available," he said.
"Equally important is that processes are in place for members to have the confidence to come forward with matters of concern and that these will be fully investigated with members being supported through the process."
Mr Barry said the George Town Volunteer Brigade has a proud history of supporting the local community in times of need and their service is highly valued by the TFS.
"Our members' commitment and service to the community while operating in high-risk environments is highly valued and their wellbeing is of the utmost importance," he said.
"Wellbeing Support is available 24 hours a day to provide confidential mental health and wellbeing services to members and their families."
Satria Dyer-Darmawan
Satria Dyer-Darmawan is a journalist for The Examiner and considers himself to be an all rounder. Originally from the Central Coast of NSW, Satria has worked in Alice Springs and North Queensland and isn't afraid to immerse himself in regional communities.
Satria Dyer-Darmawan is a journalist for The Examiner and considers himself to be an all rounder. Originally from the Central Coast of NSW, Satria has worked in Alice Springs and North Queensland and isn't afraid to immerse himself in regional communities.
