Burnt Into My Brain
- Lisa C
- Dec 24, 2025
- 3 min read
In 2009 QPS put out an all-out immediate search and rescue call for a young Somalian boy who had been walking along the local creek with his brother's bouncing a basketball.
There had been heavy rain the days prior, so the creek had a bit of run to it and was flowing quite fast. The kids were bouncing the basketball along the path when the ball bounced off the path and into the creek.
The kid had gone into the creek to try and retrieve it and got swept downstream. He had last been seen clinging to a branch in the creek.
Our team got out there and set up an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) straight away. We had the whole gamut of resources at our feet: Rescue 500 emergency helicopter, police, the dog squad, the whole lot.
Despite preparations for the New Years Eve event being well underway with SES committed to assist Brisbane city the following day, and supporting a major fire, SES members turned out in full force. There were two flood boats, three quad bikes, the Rescue 500 helicopter and a 7-news chopper with an SES member onboard searching from the air, and about 90 SES land searchers from Redlands and Brisbane units on the ground.
It was quite a large undertaking, and I ended up asking the local control to activate regions peer support service and organise for a Chaplin to be on site.
By this stage, the chances of survival were very slim. He’d gone into the stream somewhere the day before and he didn’t know how to swim.
Ultimately, the police divers, who had been combing the creek, found him underneath a couple of foot of water.
The Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator (SARMC) came over to me and said it’s done. The Chaplin was standing with us, and he said the police divers had found him deceased.
Probably the most soul crushing thing was standing all those members down, and then in the background, you've got the mother of these six children, the mother of the deceased absolutely wailing, wanting answers and stuff like that. That's probably the thing that still haunts me to this day.
It was the most crushing job I’ve done in my 21 years. You can't unhear that. It’s burnt into the back of my brain.
I mean, I have compartmentalised over the years. It's not something that I talk about regularly within member circle or anything like that, but it’s hard, you can't just get over that.
As the Incident controller (IC) for the search, there was still stuff that needed to be done so I had to just get on with it. I stood everyone down from searching, got all the members and assets back to the search HQ there in the park then briefed the members on what had happened.
After the job was done I went home with the crew that came out with me. We chatted a bit between silences. “What if…” you go through all the prompts “What could we have done better…” In the back of your mind, you know he was already deceased when you started, that the team couldn't see him underneath a couple of feet of water, and that there's nothing you could have done, but it doesn't stop your brain from trying to find reasons and process it.
When we go out searching for someone who has taken their own life you know they're at peace now. They're in their resting place. There's still a knock on the effect for a family, their friends and the first responders, but the subject is now at peace. But when it’s a child and it’s a tragic accident, then it's a lot harder to process.
I've spoken with a couple of members over the years but it's something that I very seldom speak about. It's not an easy topic.
There are a lot of volunteers out there that have done lots of difficult stuff. I think sharing stories about some of the things we’ve done or seen is good. It helps the person telling the story process what’s happened, and it helps those reading to know that there are other people out there too which helps them feel more connected.
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is this extraordinary volunteer?
Meet Remo Mattoli – husband to Toni and father to Matteo and a sausage dog called Olive. He is a professional truck driver and experienced operator in transport and logistics that has been volunteering with SES for 20 years.
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