Urgent action required

Volunteer firefighters form an essential part of the New Zealand Fire Service. So why is it so hard to find enough willing helpers?

The recent wide-spread publicity campaign to entice men and women to join Northland's numerous brigades as volunteer fire-fighters resulted in precisely two responses. That does not an army make and it is indeed a small army required to keep our fire-fighting services in healthy operating nick.

There are 13 New Zealand Fire Service stations between Hukerenui and Cape Reinga, manned in total by 320 volunteers. An ideal number, says NZ Fire Service Area Manager, Allan Kerrisk, would be 380 to form an essential part of the fabric of a Northland community that expects rapid response when emergencies arise. A lack of volunteers enlisting potentially threatens that vital service and the question is, are potential candidates shy, ambivalent or simply too busy?

There are numerous contemporary factors making volunteering for anything difficult. A tight economy, longer working hours, employers loathe to lose vital staff during business hours and even an altered generational ethos that demands instant gratification all conspire to create barriers to volunteering and it's not as if the Fire Service doesn't try hard to entice. Six years ago a major survey was conducted around Ahipara to determine who was available in the community and what was needed to generate interest.

"What some saw as barriers weren't barriers at all," says Allan Kerrisk.

"Not being personally invited was one. Others thought they might be too short, too tall, not strong enough, too old or just lacking in skills. So we had an evening function and invited a number of people to come along and it was successful because we got six new recruits."

The role of the Fire Service has changed substantially since the act that covers its activities came into being in the mid-seventies. At the time, the major role of fire fighters was attending fires. What legislators didn't foresee was the expanding multifaceted role of a Fire Service that today covers extraction work at motor vehicle accidents, hazardous substance spills, assisting with medical calls, urban search and rescue and being the 'standing army' under severe weather conditions.

Currently under way is a legislative review which may lead to what Mr Kerrisk calls a 'different style' of protection but in the meantime there are still volunteer stations to be manned and Northland's efforts to attract volunteers continue. In a perverse way a serious fire at the Kaikohe Day Care Centre in July and last summer's lethal Karikari Peninsular fires both highlighted an ever-present need.

"We have to find people between the hours of 9am and 3pm. There are work-ready people in places like Kawakawa, Kaitaia and Kaikohe who may be currently unemployed or whose responsibility for child-minding during the day is not as great if the child is at school."

A viewpoint commonly heard in the wider community that the young and unemployed could be made to provide a community service in exchange for the dole hasn't gone unnoticed by the Fire Service. There are discussions with the Ministry of Social Development about whether fire-fighting skills might gain NZQA credits and if some of those 'graduating' from unemployment 'boot camps' could be Fire Service candidates if they pass police security checks or the medical.

It's not just a local issue. The reasons for dwindling volunteer numbers are exactly the same in a numerous other countries. Yet there would be few jobs in the world that offer such intrinsic excitement and camaraderie, training, paid expenses and corporate gear that all-kitted out that would be worth around $4,500 - which, on reflection, is more than an airline designer uniform or even, come to think of it, a decent watch on a corporate wrist.

For more information about joining your local volunteer fire brigade, call 0800 FIRE RECRUIT (0800 347 373) or visit volunteer.fire.org.nz