New Year Honours: Peter Hallagan

Peter Hallagan served as a volunteer with the Waipukurau Fire Brigade and for Jaycees. Photo / Duncan Brown

Peter Hallagan spent his career with the fire service battling smoke, flames and assisting with road accidents on the front line.

He has been awarded a Queen's Service Medal (QSM) in the 2014 New Year Honours for his 44-year commitment as a volunteer with the Waipukurau brigade.

The achievement follows Mr Hallagan's retirement last year, though he is still on hand to offer advice.

After joining the service in 1969 thanks to encouragement from work colleagues who were already signed up he rose to the rank of station officer, a title which he held for 15 years.

"Every time the siren went, or the pager in later years, you had this sense of getting out and helping somebody," he said. "Even as station officer I would rather be out and get covered in soot and dirt and smoke, of course road accidents were a big part of it."

He shared the news of his award with his Wellington-based family over Christmas celebrations.

"I was surprised with the award because generally fire fighters [who got a QSM] have been involved behind the scenes whereas I was always on the front line."

His training as a mechanic brought skill and innovation to the table, tweaking machines to help them function better and designing equipment to make jobs easier and safer. That included the invention of two devices which made it faster to remove people from wrecked vehicles and improve their chances of survival.

For many years he trained and led Road Crash Rescue Challenge teams for regional and national competitions, winning several trophies including Best Innovation and Best Team Leader.

He also mentored new recruits.

Mr Hallagan gave more than 10 years' service to the Jaycees raising funds for community projects such as children's playground equipment, and distributing money from a glass recycling project he convened to youth and children in the town.