Auckland Brigade celebrates 150 years fighting fires
Firefighting can be traced all the way back to ancient Rome, who boasted 7,000 professionals in service, and the first handpump to squirt water at fires was invented nearly 2 millennia ago by an Egyptian named Ctesibus from Alexandria. Tāmaki Makaurau’s history of fighting fires is a little shorter, but no less proud. The Auckland Fire Brigade celebrated their 150th anniversary with an open day at The Cloud on the Auckland waterfront. Fire personnel showed off their aerial appliances, equipment through past years, skills at handling fires and other emergencies and even gave kids some hands-on experience with hoses and fire extinguishers. All good fuel to spark a fire within young hearts and minds, no doubt. Photographs by Hayden Woodward
Image 1 of 19: Volunteers from East Coast Bays are manning hoses while kids race toy fire trucks along the hoses powered by their water pressure. Photo / Hayden Woodward