22-year-old Mark Yeong is a Singaporean studying in the University of Sydney who spends his holiday in a different way. This second-year student physiotherapy student is a volunteer firefighter that has been battling the bushfires that have been plaguing Australia recently.
Bush fires have destroyed at least 829 homes in the state of Sydney, and around 2.7 million hectures of bushland, or the equivalent of more than 35 Singapores. Fires are still intense in the famous Blue Mountains, up north near Queensland, and in the Southern Highlands, about a five-hour drive south of Sydney.
Mr Yeong became a firefighter after he was approached around August by the captain of the fire brigade near where he lives in the upper north shore of Sydney – someone the family knows from church. He trained for about a month and by the end of September, he was in the field. Since then he has been doing this three times a week, while juggling a part-time job.
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Source: The Straits Times, 24 December 2019