Wairoa in Focus: More volunteers needed at the fire brigade

A recruitment information night for prospective volunteer firefighters will be held at the Wairoa Fire Station on Wednesday as the brigade tries to overcome a shortage of personnel similar to that being felt by volunteer brigades throughout the country.

It will start at 5.30pm, with new chief fire officer Luke Knight, a newcomer to the brigade in comparison with the 53-years’ service of Grant Duley, who remains a member but stood down from the top role at the end of last year, hopeful the brigade will soon be adding to the 19 he counts as active members.

The Wairoa Fire Station, where the volunteer firefighters recruitment information night will be held on Wednesday, starting at 5.30pm. Photo / Warren Buckland

Another recently retired from the brigade is Barry Gasson, with 48 years’ service but still active in the auto bodies and salvage business in which he is often also called out to emergencies in the area.

Knight says people can join and start training at any time of the year, at the age of 18, or 16 with parental permission, but Wednesday’s event will shine a light on the brigade and what it entails.

Training is each Monday evening, and, as one of almost 600 brigades throughout the country, with close to 12,000 volunteers and over 1800 fulltime firefighters, Wairoa has on average 3-4 fire and emergency calls a week.

Knight says that, as with all volunteer brigades, members have family and work lives to prioritise but as people retire, leave town or otherwise are not able to continue there is always a need for more volunteers to make sure crews of at least four are available each time an appliance leaves the station.

Wairoa has two appliances and a tanker, and along with smaller brigades at Putorino to the south, Tuai to the west, and Nuhaka and Mahia to the east, covers a district that is vast, rural and remote with the nearest major-station back-up at least 100km away in Gisborne, Napier, or Rotorua.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, on issues from Wairoa to Dannevirke, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.