Firefighter battling blazes takes much-needed break and dances in the middle of charred forest in hilarious TikTok video
- Grafton fire chief Chris Rumpf shares dance clips from bushfire-stricken forests
- Mr Rumpf posts the short clips to video-sharing app TikTok to ‘raise spirits’
- With more than three million views, he is using his fame to recruit young people
A firefighter has been raising spirits from bushfire-stricken forests by sharing dance clips to popular video-sharing app TikTok.
Grafton Fire and Rescue acting chief Chris Rumpf, 48, has amassed over three million views since he posted his first video on Wednesday.
Mr Rumpf is now using his TikTok fame to urge young people to join the fire service by posting recruitment clips, in addition to his fun dance videos.
Firefighter Chris Rumpf (centre) has ‘raised spirits’ by sharing dance clips from bushfire-stricken forests on the NSW South Coast to popular video-sharing app TikTok
The firefighter’s most popular video is of himself wearing firefighter gear and two colleagues in HAZMAT suits performing the popular ‘LineDancer Challenge’
In the clip, the three men dance in the middle of scorched-black bushland on the NSW South Coast to the tune of Gold by LineDancer.
‘My team and I had been working at Lake Conjola spraying asbestos there, it’s hard and hot work. It’s not very nice going from house after house where you’re just seeing everyone’s memories are just a pile of ash on the ground,’ Mr Rumpf told the SBS,
‘I just told the guys, we’ll do a little video and post it to see if we can get a few likes just to raise their spirits and it just went from there.’
Mr Rumpf, 48, has amassed over three million views since he posted his first video on Wednesday and is now using his platform to recruit young people to the fire service
What started off as a routine operation to prevent airborne asbestos from burned buildings ended up giving Mr Rumpf a viral video with more than 1.3 million views.
‘There’s a lot of people doing it pretty hard and hopefully we can give some of them a bit of a laugh and help on their long process of recovering from what’s just happened,’ Mr Rumpf said.
The fire chief has amassed more than 3.1 million views in total from just seven videos posted to the popular app, which is known for its dance, comedy and lip-syncing clips.
The average age of TikTok users is from 16 to 24 years old, meaning they are largely from Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2010).
Dance like everyone’s watching: TikTok is a popular app, which is known for its dance, comedy and lip-syncing clips and is most popular among Generation Z
Now that Mr Rumpf has amassed a huge following, he has begun to use his platform to recruit young budding firefighters.
‘If you want to be a retained firefighter like us here at Grafton, 306 Grafton, go onto our website, check it out, or drop into your local fire station,’ he said in his latest clip.
‘You can help your communities out as well. We’re always looking for more girls too. I’ll try a new dance next time! Thanks.’
Now back in Grafton, the retained firefighter will return to the NSW South Coast to continue his bushfire efforts next week.
He will remain on call for the next two weeks before going back to his day job at the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
‘If you want to be a retained firefighter like us here at Grafton, 306 Grafton, go onto our website, check it out, or drop into your local fire station,’ Mr Rumpf said in his latest clip