Alistair Stewart (seated) was honoured on March 14 after half a century volunteering for the Bulls Fire Brigade.
Alistair Stewart (seated) was honoured on March 14 after half a century volunteering for the Bulls Fire Brigade.
Alistair Stewart has seen half a century pass as a volunteer for his local fire brigade in Bulls, in the Rangitīkei District.
“It’s been a great 50 years,” Stewart, 72, said.
“No intention of pulling out of it, I’ve still got plenty to offer.
“I’ve got all the younger onesthere to do the hard yards ... I’m just there in the background.”
Bulls chief fire officer Brian Carter said Stewart was a “brilliant” volunteer firefighter who made his way through the ranks to senior station officer before joining operational support.
Alistair Stewart was honoured on March 14 after 50 years of volunteering for the Bulls Fire Brigade.
The team celebrated his 50th year with the brigade last Saturday.
During his decades of service, Stewart noticed that many firefighters now had jobs that complicated their abilities to respond swiftly to daytime calls.
When he started in 1975, about 90% of the brigade worked locally, allowing them to attend calls more quickly.
He said many volunteers now worked outside of the town and were unable to leave work for calls.
“So daytime, we can be a bit short, but that’s just a sign of the times. There’s nothing that [Fire and Emergency NZ] can do to alleviate that.”
Relying on local mothers to serve during the day while their children were at school had helped, Stewart said.
In 1975, Stewart worked at the Rangitīkei Electric Power Board.
He said whenever local postman Owen Dunn, who also served as deputy chief fire officer, saw Stewart, he would say, “It’s about time you joined the fire brigade”.
There was no call centre when he started. The telephone switchboard operator essentially did the fire brigade calls, notifying people when the firefighters were on their way.
“When I joined the brigade, 35 calls a year was ... a big year. ”
A year might have had firefighters dealing with one structure fire, numerous grass fires and one or two car accidents.
Nowadays, training had expanded to include chemical spills, fuel spills, medical events, civil emergencies and weather events, Stewart said.
“It was very easy going, and training was very basic, but now ... we’ve got so much more to deal with.
“If anybody has anything go wrong, it’s the volunteer and career firefighters that are the first ones to get there and get things sorted.
“Bulls was the first new digital telephone exchange in the country. We went from the old crank-up to the latest technology in 1983.″
The change from a manual to a digital exchange saw a spike in local calls made to the brigade.
While the team was fairly well-equipped for this, the whole system was constantly changing, he said.
“With changes in technology and advancement, what’s suitable today may not be suitable tomorrow ... so you’ve got to retrain, rethink. No two incidents are the same.”
After working for years with the Rangitīkei power board, Stewart moved in the mid-80s to maintain the country’s highways until he was made redundant in 1993.
He said he was glad to have the Bulls fire brigade at that time.
When he is not with the brigade, Stewart does ham radio (amateur radio), volunteering for the non-profit charity AREC, using live radio to communicate search and rescue or emergency events.
