Hawke's Bay celebrates volunteer firefighters

Nuhaka Fire Brigade volunteer Marilyn Barabrich is one of 14,000 FENZ personnel celebrated during National Volunteer Week. Photo / Supplied

Volunteer firefighters are being celebrated across Hawke's Bay this week.

National Volunteer Week, which runs from June 21 to 27, celebrates the thousands of people who work alongside fulltime firefighters in New Zealand.

Making up over 80 per cent of Fire and Emergency New Zealand's 14,000 personnel, volunteers respond to over 79,000 incidents each year.

Hawke's Bay volunteer firefighter Marilyn Barabrich said the loss of a close family member and a want to give back to the community inspired her decision to join FENZ.

Barabrich, a volunteer with the Nuhaka Fire Brigade, said her life experiences started her passion to help other.

"As a child I was always attracted to Fire and Emergency, but my sister's death really was the catalyst for this," she said.

"The thing is with sudden death the grief is like a flood. You don't have time to prepare. But the one thing that stood out for me was the emergency services' support."

Barabrich added: "In all the chaos, I really appreciated them taking the time out to support us. It just meant so much and I never forgot that. I wanted to do what they did for me."

Barabrich said the Nuhaka Fire Brigade has a diverse group of volunteers who share a close connection and a common goal.

"We're a small brigade. The men are naturally quite practical, whereas us females, we involve ourselves more with the people," she said.

"We've known each other since we were kids. We're all the same age, we were in the same class so there's that deep whanaungatanga, that connectedness."

Barabrich added: "Serving others is something I can kind of get deep on."

Volunteer firefighters, alongside our career firefighters, are often first to the scene to incidents including firefighting, motor vehicle accidents, medical emergencies, hazardous substances, maritime incidents, and natural disasters.

Barbarich, who is one of over 10000 volunteer FENZ personal, said giving up her Christmas and New Year's was strange at first, but has since learnt to enjoy it.

"I think it's more important to be there for the people than it is to have a party," she said. "I usually stay at home by myself and I save myself up, just in case.

"The first New Year's that I gave up, it was like wow. But it was kind of exciting responding to incidents, and I thought this was actually better than getting on the plonk on New Year's Eve.

"It's much more memorable and more rewarding."