Te Puke fire report: New shed officially opened

Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade's new shed.

Emergency calls as at September 2: 209

Our station open day and shed opening was held at the weekend and was a great success despite the wet weather.

The shed project has been four years from conception to completion, with many hurdles along the way. First floated early in 2020, the pandemic meant we didn’t start serious planning until near the end of 2022, raising what we thought was sufficient funds to complete in around six months.

The budget very soon ballooned as we grappled with plans, resource and building consents, increasing build costs and site preparation challenges. The excavation reached a depth of more than 2m in places.

We would like to formally acknowledge the various organisations and people from our district who made this project possible. Our deepest and sincere thanks go to the following:

TECT – Our largest individual contributor with a sizeable grant that equated to just under half of the original cost estimate. TECT provides a crucial source of funding for all sorts of community projects, and I believe the wider Bay of Plenty would be lost without them.

Seeka Kiwifruit – Our second largest supporter, providied a large sum to get us under way and was fully supportive from the start.

Travis Donaldson from Central Contracting Ltd, who provided us with use of himself, his digger, Bobcat and truck over a period of almost two weeks. His invoice was clearly just a fraction of what it should have been.

The rural property owners of Te Puke district – when we needed additional funding to complete the project a Rural Delivery mail appeal resulted in an overwhelming and deeply humbling level of support that allowed us to get over the line. You are all truly amazing.

Western Bay Emergency Services Golf Tournament – the organisers run a fantastic event that provides a strong boost to our local emergency services.

Eastpack and Trevelyan’s provided financial assistance as did another 25 local businesses that helped in various and significant ways, either financially or with donated or reduced-cost labour. We could not have finished the shed without their support. They will be acknowledged with a sign at the fire station.

We have had 12 calls in the last fortnight.

Four have been false alarms and three have been medical calls with none fatal.

There were three fires – two potential structure fires, fortunately with minimal damage, and a car fire in Malyon St.

Two motor vehicle crashes, thankfully neither serious although one, in Jocelyn St, could have been. A driver appeared to lose control in Jocelyn St after exiting Te Puke New World, ricocheted off a ute on the street, went through the garden back into the car park then collided with another four parked vehicles.

Fortunately nobody was hurt and we believe the driver was not seriously injured.

Check out the Brigade Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Te.Puke.Fire.Brigade