In 2023 I had been a member of the Auckland Fire Police/Operational Support for 42 years and it was time to retire. I resigned in October 2023, as had been planned for some years… but I didn’t really think much about reflections until November this year (2024) when the brigade’s honours night came around, which incorporated my farewell. It was only then that I thought I better gather a few stories, recollections of my time with Fire Police and latterly Operational Support, also known as Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade. I said at the function I didn’t want to overdo “war-horse stories” but, nevertheless, I recalled a few events. In this Dispatch I have repeated these – and added a few more.
Background
Fire Police, first established in Christchurch in 1867, predate the New Zealand Police, and were volunteers sworn in as Constables, members of Fire Police Corps, to keep the peace at fires, prevent looting and control spectators. The Auckland unit began in 1933… its role, powers and duties were latterly confirmed in the Fire Services Act 1949, and Corps have thrived ever since in many cities and towns throughout New Zealand. In 2010 Fire Police Corps were renamed Operational Support Units with expanded duties but without the powers of arrest (which had seldom been used, anyway). Today members provide such services as traffic management, scene security, lighting, communications, on-site catering, salvage and first aid. Auckland Fire Police/Operational Support has for 90+ years assisted firefighters, emergency service workers and the public: they are volunteers uniquely criss-crossing the Super City, regardless of numerous fire brigade and geo-political boundaries, as they serve the communities. They have also taken the name Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade, originally established in 1857, and notably the first such entity in New Zealand.
Early Days – Fire Police
In my job as emergency services reporter with NZBC Radio and TV News I was well aware of the work of the fire brigade. I came to realise there was more to firefighting than just aiming jets of water at the flames – that there were tactics involved, not merely supressing the fire depending on what was involved, but preventing its spread to exposed buildings. And figuring out immediate rescue operations when people were involved.
I’m getting an update for NZBC News from Fire Chief Lloyd Wilson. S Brandt
I had also seen, first hand, the work of the Fire Police, its members were often the first I encountered at roadblocks on the approach to the various emergencies.
I had always had an interest in fire services and its history: I had been active at MOTAT’s Fire Section and I acquired a vintage Dennis fire engine of my own.
1930 Dennis Dart fire engine ex Dunedin and Mosgiel
As a follow-up, I mentioned to the Captain of the Volunteer Fire Police Corps, Dick Reid, that I would like to join his team. He was agreeable. Not long after, I was at a fire reporting for NZBC TV news and Captain Reid arranged an on-site meeting with Fire Chief, Allan Bruce. “Ric wants to join the Fire Police,” said Dick. Allan Bruce replied bluntly, “The sooner he’s in uniform the better!” Then Dick Reid mentioned I would of course need 2 or 3 good references, and Allan Bruce confirmed this. “Yes”, he said, “we have upped the ante, we just don’t take anyone these days!”. I didn’t know they were having me on. So, when the time came for my formal application, I made a few phone calls and then submitted 3 references, one from the Prime Minister, one from the Mayor of Auckland and the other from a barrister of the Supreme Court. Dick’s bluff had been called and, embarrassed, he said he would put in just the one, from the barrister. I was voted in as member on 11 June 1979.
First Call
First year 1979
The working uniform was a helmet, boots, yellow plastic jacket and serge black trousers and this is how I turned out to my first call, a motor vehicle accident with person trapped at the corner of Owairaka Ave and Richardson Road in Mt Albert. Alerted to the call-out by telephone in the middle of the night, I was quickly on the scene and found a sports car rammed into a power pole, the driver thoroughly trapped in the wreckage. My job was scene-guard so I saw, close-up, rescue operations. I could not help thinking about what the driver was going through. On top of the pain from his injuries, he had to suffer the noise of the rescue tools: in those days a circular saw was used to cut off the roof with its terrific grinding noise and frightening showers of sparks like a giant Catherine Wheel on Guy Fawkes night. (The Jaws of Life were to follow in later years). The driver’s condition deteriorated, St John paramedics moved in on the patient and I was asked to hold the drip “at shoulder height” – and that was my task until, eventually, the driver was released and taken to hospital. It was the first of hundreds of crashes I attended.
Captain Reid
Captain Reid rang me next day to check that I had been comfortable going about my duties. Dick was a big man, larger than life, full of humour and very personable. He was one for bluster, taking the mickey, and a good joke.
Captian Richard Reid, typical pose, guards the gangway during a fire on SS Taveuni
He had been in the Fire Police for many years and he had a hand in formation of the Volunteer Brigade at Piha where the family had a holiday house. He had represented Auckland Fire Police at a meeting which founded a nation-wide association for fire police and for years served as an executive of that organisation. By the 1990s he was semi-retired, able to devote a lot of time to the Corps.
After he retired in 1992, I followed him as OIC with a changed rank, Divisional Officer. I was working fulltime so I just didn’t have the same hours to contribute. And I got the message during the interview for the job that a professional approach was expected with consolidated, perhaps expanded, Fire Police duties on the fireground. Determined to spread the workload and involve others in decision-making, I looked back to my days working in Parliament and adapted the Cabinet process. Each officer would independently look after a “portfolio”, for instance: uniform, training, canteen, recruitment, finances, secretarial, etc, each responsible to the OIC, and the membership, for oversight of their allocated portfolios.
The experiment worked well, we refined it a touch, and I know it’s still very much part of the Brigade. And I was delighted to see the principle, which I had introduced in the Auckland Fire Police, adopted by the New Zealand Fire Service and now FENZ, written into the Model Rules for all volunteer brigades to follow.
United Fire Brigades’ Association (UFBA)
Fire Police were not welcome, even acknowledged, by the UFBA in those days. Despite Christchurch Fire Police being present at the formation of the UFBA in 1878, and one or two Fire Police Corps who were admitted many, many years ago, (and then disqualified), membership of the UFBA remained, it seemed, exclusively for operational firefighters. Repeated requests by Fire Police to join were turned down.
So, I was perplexed when Fire Commander Roger Sampson, the senior executive in Auckland at the time, asked if I would like to attend the UFBA’s annual conference in Hastings. “Look”, I said, “Fire Police are no-go and wouldn’t be appreciated, I don’t think tolerated, in the exalted, exclusive company of those firefighters. I’d be run out of town!”. But he had made other plans. “No one from the Auckland Fire Brigade wants to attend. I have asked the men and they’re happy for you to be their delegate”. Thus, an outlawed volunteer fire policeman represented career firefighters at the hallowed UFBA Conference.
Shoulder Flash – unwelcome at UFBA Conferences
Those attending could not figure how someone wearing a Fire Police uniform had been admitted to the building!
Fire Police were finally allowed to join the UFBA in 1984. And we have come a long way since. Our Brigade made a major contribution when it hosted several UFBA national conferences in Auckland, each attended by in excess of 400 delegates. And further involvement was seen in my 6-year tenure on the Board of Directors of the UFBA, the first appointed Director. And now Lesina Walden, long-time member of Operational Support in Auckland and Bay of Plenty, has been elected Vice- President of the UFBA. It’s obvious Operational Support, once accepted… have more than pulled our weight.
The Biggest Local Event
This was in South Auckland, the most complex job for the fire service, when a petrol tanker was involved in a collision and fire near Manukau City Complex, and a 12 year old girl was trapped under the burning tanker.
Despite the dangerous situation, Firefighter Royd Kennedy stayed with the girl for the hour or so it took to put out the flames, prevent re-ignition, and figure a rescue attempt. As well as the fire-fight and rescue, it was found the escaping fuel was flowing through drains under the Manukau City Centre and carparks. The whole Manukau Centre, shops, offices and restaurants had to evacuated, and it was late-night shopping. There were lost kids, anxious parents and families who had to abandon their cars in the carpark. Shops and offices emptied, the whole place closed down for fear of ignition in the fume-laden atmosphere. Our members were also occupied on point duty at the busy intersection of Redoubt, Great South and Wiri Station Roads. Then it was discovered the fuel was draining into the upper reaches of the Manukau Harbour calling for inspections in neighbouring streets and dispersal on the foreshore.
Quite rightly the focus fell on the dramatic rescue, but firefighters and our members were overtaxed on the night, a long-duration job with many tasks creditably performed, that went unmentioned.
The Strangest Workplace
I was a couple of years into my service before I came to grips with the range of emergencies Fire Police were called to: usually in support of firefighters. Our “workplace” was just wherever emergencies took place: in residential streets, on the highway, in high rise buildings, on farms, in bush and out on the water. But I was hardly prepared for duty in what was our most remarkable worksite. In January 1981 I attended, with fellow members, a fire at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Mountain Road, Epsom. A plumber caused the blaze on level 4 which firefighters tackled from above using the Snorkel aerial platform. 30 patients were evacuated from a surgical ward. A Fire Officer detailed Fire Police to accompany a gowned staff member to lower levels “for salvage”. Once armed with mops and buckets we were directed into an operating theatre: our task to contain the dirty water seeping down the walls from firefighting operations above, and to prevent ponding across the theatre floor. What was remarkable was that, as we entered the theatre, we could see an operation was underway, the scene just like you see in the movies: a team of gowned staff crowded around the table, bright lights overhead and a multiplicity of dials, tubes and tools.
Some of us mopped and sponged, catching the dirty water as it flowed down the wall in a slow cascade. We filled buckets which were taken out for emptying. Colleagues tackled the ponding, preventing water advancing towards the operating table. And all the time the operation continued – we were seemingly ignored: it was just as if we weren’t there! Eventually firefighting ceased, the water stopped flowing and we withdrew.
The circumstances leading to this peculiar duty were that once the fire was discovered on level 4, the order was made to evacuate. But on the lower floor there was an operation in full swing. I seem to recall the surgeon was orthopaedic specialist, O. R. Nicholson, who apparently thought the procedure was at a critical phase and deemed it unwise to “close and remove” the patient. While not inclined to interrupt the surgery, he had however asked for “flood control”. Hospital executives requested help from the fire brigade and so Fire Police were deployed in a unique workplace in an extraordinary situation.
Multiple Fatalities
The 1989 fire in the Terwindle nursing home in Herne Bay was a tragic loss of life, no one could help being affected that night by the sight of the six victims laid out on the lawn. The question remained – how could a fire in suburban Auckland could get away with such rapidity and sweep, unchecked, virtually through the whole building? The tragedy resulted in stricter fire prevention measures in rest homes centred including the provision of sprinklers and a patient-to-floorspace ratio. And… it also led to a vital addition to our Canteen.
The canteen was on the way to Terwindle when, approaching the scene, it was stopped by an over-zealous traffic officer who said the canteen was not an emergency vehicle and so it could proceed no further. Despite the best protests of the crew, Station Officer Alan Baldick and others, the traffic cop had made his decision. He would not be moved to let the canteen proceed to the fire so it remained at the cordon. I was contacted and in the end I had to go out to the roadblock, see off the traffic cop, and get the canteen to the fireground. Next day I wasted no time arranging for a modification to the canteen, a red flashing light was fitted on the top of the cab to prove it was an emergency vehicle.
A Jumbo Task
Perhaps one of the strangest messages announcing a turnout was to Western Springs Stadium to “assist police with escaped elephant”. It had broken through the zoo’s perimeter fence near the stadium and had a clear path out on to Great North Road. Senior Station Officer Allan Officer, with one of our trucks, was among our members there. We didn’t know quite what to do to try to contain the beast, nor reaction if the elephant should make a charge for freedom, or for us! The only options seemed to be to climb a tree, hide behind one, or make a run for it. Police wanted a sort of human fence across the nearby playing fields to discourage the pachyderm wandering. The police sergeant gave a quick briefing. Somebody asked him “what will happen if the beast gets out on to the main road, or even the nearby motorway?” Quick as a flash he replied “…in that case there’ll be a few new traffic islands instantly created!” Guns were fetched in case the animal went on the rampage. But the zoo’s van arrived with a crate of cabbages and the beast, keen on his veggies, was happy to follow the van to the fence… and through the big hole he had created, and back into the zoo.
My Novel Approach
While we are at Western Springs, I was reminded recently about my unorthodox approach to a call-out near the Museum of Transport and Technology. Great North Road and the environs were in the grip of a major traffic jam caused by the event we had been alerted-to. The sooner we are on scene, the quicker we get to our tasks… and often this means immediate action towards easing traffic problems. So sometimes local knowledge, a touch of the unconventional or the eccentric (or all 3 if they line up!) assists in quickest possible arrival on the scene. On this occasion I found it expedient to bypass the long tail-back of traffic by leaving Great North Road at Motions Road, driving up on to the tram tracks and travelling along the concrete rail-bed for the length of the lake-side frontage of the park, delivering me without any further delay at the Museum’s main gates. I had arrived!
Canterbury Earthquake
Thanks to Chief Teal’s swift offer to assist in Christchurch immediately following the major earthquake there, within hours our members were on the way to Christchurch, joining the nation-wide mobilisation. They took the canteen vehicle and an appliance towing the ablutions trailer, both pressed into service immediately they arrived in the devastated city. None of us who we there can forget the scenes of destruction and death, especially the memories of those downtown scenarios, frozen in time at the moment people fled for their lives, some…. like those trapped in collapsed buildings… victims of the quake. Cafes remained as they were when abandoned: the outdoor ones with table-cloths, cups and saucers, the remains of food and drink left on the table.
Our brigade got much kudos for assisting. We were very well noticed because we were prominent, working at the hub of both Fire and Police operations.
Central Police Station had no water: the Ablutions Trailer provided sanitary services and…
…we established an outdoor bathroom for police
The Unit’s response to support emergency workers in Christchurch broke records and created some “firsts”. It was the first time the Unit had the opportunity to respond to a National Emergency, a rare event in New Zealand. (It was declared the day after the Unit offered its services). Our two trucks travelled a combined road-and-ferry journey of about 1,000 kilometres en route to destination, the furthest deployment of a volunteer brigade’s vehicles with personnel in the history of the New Zealand Fire Service. It was the longest single task the Unit’s been involved in, with 6 teams rostered by rotation over 20 days, longer than the Unit’s Task Force deployment to the Bay of Plenty earthquake in March 1987. More than 10,000 meals provided by the Army were distributed from the make-shift ‘restaurant’ at Christchurch City Fire Station, centred on our mobile Canteen Unit. Countless showers were taken by personnel at Central Police Station in the Ablutions Trailer – without water at the station, police had no alternatives for showers etc and many were also without water supply in their private homes.
Auckland members on duty after the ‘quake
Altogether some 1,400 person hours were clocked up over 22 days by those teams working in Christchurch, and by our members who supported them in Auckland. It was a valiant effort, and I was pleased to be part of it on the ground, in the thick of it, in Christchurch.
Proudest “traffic management”
Yes, I think one can take credit for taking hold of situations to minimise danger, provide safe passage, and avoid the inconvenience of detours.
Mid-evening there was a pedestrian killed at the corner of George Bolt and Kirkbride Roads in Mangere, before the underpass was built. Police had closed off the lanes towards the airport at Kirkbride, causing a lot of grief to those on the way to check in for flights. The recommended police detour via Puhunui Road was impossible, especially for out-of-towners who had no idea which streets to take on the long and complicated detour through South Auckland… a diversion which, of course, was not sign-posted.
So, together with Station Officers Chris England and Andrew Galloway, I hatched a solution, spoke to the Police Inspector who had just arrived on the scene, and it was agreed to divert city-bound traffic off George Bolt at Landing Drive. This would allow us to send vehicles down the expressway the wrong way towards the airport, crossing back into their proper lanes at Landing Drive. It was a tricky scenario with the objective to get passengers to their planes on time.
We set up the few cones we had, together with our Mitsi appliance and 2 police cars, offered by the Inspector. We got the city-bound detour working, and then allowed vehicles to proceed down the “wrong lanes” to the airport. Then a lifesaver: a traffic management company’s truck happened on the scene and we commandeered it under that well-known and often-used legislation, the Fish and Chips Act, to get more cones and signs. Our successful diversion was in place for hours… and countless passengers made it to their flights on time because of it. I was pleased the plan worked… buses, trucks, and taxis were among those using the detour.
The Notorious Piha Road
The narrow, winding and hilly road through the bush between Waiatarua and Piha Beach on Auckland’s West Coast has, over the years, had more than its fair share of motor accidents. There are ravines one side of the road, embankments on the other and at night, without any streetlights, it’s pitch black. Fire Police/Operational Support have often been called on to assist, mainly with traffic management and scene lighting. When there’s an accident of almost any kind on Piha Road it has to be closed to allow emergency crews to work in safety. Debris often blocks the road which is narrow: it only takes one stopped or overturned vehicle to obstruct the way. Trouble is, Piha Road is the one and only access to and from the beach for the residents, day-trippers and beach-goers. So, when there’s an accident of almost any kind and the road is closed there’s not only a buildup of vehicles waiting, but increasing frustration by those unable to proceed.
It only took a couple of these accidents to realise our members could be an asset, assisting with either stop-go traffic control around the scene of the accident, or if required, setting up roadblocks, particularly the traditional cordon where Piha Road leaves the Scenic Drive at Waiatarua in the Waitakere Ranges.
But it has not always been plain sailing for us. The first time we turned out we were told in no uncertain terms by the Officer-In-Charge of Piha Fire Brigade that we were not wanted, and to go home. As we departed the scene we could see that, in the interests of safety to those working on the road that night, better scene-management was required. The next time, a fatal accident, I made sure we were on the same page as police. I offered, in the interests of safety, to go back to Waiatarua and put in a roadblock which was readily accepted. When the Piha Fire Chief tried to intervene on this occasion, I advised our tasks had already been assigned by police and that “…we are about to get to work, and I’m sure you won’t have any argument with making the place safe!”.
Another factor on the Piha Road is lack of communications. If the event is mid-way between Waiatarua and Piha there is often no radio coverage nor cell phone availability, and one has to drive to the scene to ascertain details. This drive in and out tripped me up one night. We had the roadblock in at Waiatarua: the road was closed in both directions, and I had to go to the scene to check progress, trying to estimate the duration of the job and how long the road would be closed. Dozens of motorists were anxious to know when they could return home, or whether they should arrange accommodation in Auckland. I was mildly criticised for the speeds I got up to on the closed road… I suppose I had confidence there was no traffic and, anyway, I would see the lights of any approaching vehicle. Lesson learnt.
There were a couple of interesting sideline “emergencies” connected with the closure of Piha Road. The first involved an elderly man who was returning to Piha and, caught at the roadblock for several hours, advised us he was much longer than he had expected away from home, and he was overdue to take essential medication. He told us he should have taken his pills a couple of hours ago. We made a series of phone calls to arrange to get him home. He parked his car at nearby Waiatarua fire station, we transported him to the accident scene, walked him through it to the Piha side where he was met by a neighbour and taken home for his meds. He was to retrieve his car once the road reopened.
The other help we gave was to a man who approached us, late afternoon, at the Waiatarua roadblock showing great alarm when he found the road was closed.
A disturbing sight for the Air New Zealand pilot!
He said he was an Air New Zealand pilot on his way home in Piha to get ready for work: he was rostered on a late-night flight from Mangere, and he asked if we could help in any way. Again, a flurry of phone calls and arrangements were put in place to get him down to the scene of the crash and picked up by his wife on the Piha side… and then the exercise reversed for the return journey en route to the airport. We could not raise anyone at the scene by radio or phone, so I took the anxious pilot to the inner cordon and hoped police would allow him to walk through the incident. I explained the circumstances to the Sergeant. He listened. The pilot crossed his fingers. I thought the situation was not improved by smart remarks when the policeman said, “Oh! so the keys to the plane are in your pants pocket at home and now you are confronted with a crime scene. Well, this is a problem!” It was eventually agreed I would escort him, walking through the scene. Thus, the pilot was on his way home. The arrangements to get him out were completed, he was just so grateful, and I can only surmise the night flight to Los Angeles left on time that night!
Serious Road Crashes
In earlier times we would attend fatal or serious road crashes in South Auckland on State Highways 1 and 2. There were some horrific head-on collisions along SH1 at Mercer, Meremere, Hampton Downs and Rangiriri when the main road was just two lanes without median barriers. Our main task was to assist with traffic control. The construction of the expressway greatly reduced the accident rate.
SH2 had a worse reputation with a terrible toll, just two lanes with turns, twists, bridges and limited overtaking lanes. Chief Fire Officer of Mangitangi Volunteer Fire Brigade, Don Shanks, was usually first emergency responder on the scene and after a quick recce he would radio for additional help. He knew a fatal or serious crash took hours to resolve… rescue, recovery, scene investigation and removal of the vehicles…and so he invariably added Auckland’s canteen to provide meals and refreshments for the workers during the long-duration job. We would take his “assistance message” as intimation that traffic control would also be required, so other members turned out as well as the canteen crew. With Don’s early alert we could easily beat the traffic management company to the scene and put in closures or management as required. On one occasion the cordon had to be extended to facilitate space for the arrival of 2 rescue helicopters. Mangitangi and Maramarua Brigades were often both called to attend these crashes and when it came to radio messages describing the location of an incident on State Highway Two, a number of landmarks became very well known to emergency services personnel… places such as “Pink Pig”, “The Castle”, “Red Fox” and “Golf Course Straight”. “This is near the Pink Pig” or “We’re just beyond the Red Fox on the Thames side” were typical advisory messages.
Pink Pig was one of the landmarks: since closed
Detours, often in place for hours, meant lengthy alternative routes for travellers… some returning to SH1 and “going the long way round” or cutting through Kopuku Road which also led to SH1, a diversion not recommended for heavy trucks. On one accasion a farmer who was concerned at the number of people waiting in the queues on both sides of the accident, provided a detour across his paddocks. All right in the dry summer weather, and most welcome!
All in all, the frequency and seriousness of accidents, the injuries and hardships they brought, on top of the inconvenience to motorists stranded on the busy highway, disturbed Fire Chief Don Shanks. He had attended more than 80 fatal crashes in his time. Don headed a campaign to do away with the black spot, the “highway of death” as he put it, and in 2008 Transit New Zealand completed a 6.2km expressway. This, and a reduction in speed limits on other parts of the highway, resulted in a dramatic reduction in accidents.
Spillages
Spillages on to the road, into drains and into the harbour have often resulted from motor accidents, usually involving trucks. We had beer gushing in the gutters in Otara, milk ponding across Great North Road, and tonnes of industrial rubbish spread across the motorway on-ramp in Onehunga.
Rubbish truck overturned, Onehunga, with resulting spillage
As the result of other accidents, vegetable oil cascaded across a busy road in Papatoetoe, day-old chicks escaped in transit at Tuakau, enough timber to build a house blocked the road, kerb-to-kerb in Mt Roskill, toxic chemicals leaking from an overturned van at Piha and cattle got loose from an upturned stock truck on SH1 at Te Hana.
Some beasts escaped, others were released on to SH1
But the trickiest of all was probably the fuel tanker, with its load of petrol, which crashed in West End Road, Herne Bay on the afternoon of November 5, 1975. The fuel flowed down the gutters, into drains which led straight into Cox’s Creek or Cox’s Bay, and then the harbour. With no breeze, the fumes hung heavily in the air. It was Guy Fawkes night with potential that fireworks might start a fire or cause an explosion. Radio and TV messages from Fire Chief Allan Bruce asked Herne Bay and Westmere residents to postpone their celebrations or hold them elsewhere. It was well into the evening before residual fuel was transferred to another tanker and salvage operations could commence. Fire Police assisted with vital road closures.
Fires
Too many to list over 42 years: a selection of pictures shows the variety of calls and the fierce force of fire unleashed.
Villas in Ponsonby are often Kauri-timbered, their old, dry, wood is impregnated with flammable gum
Large furnishings etc warehouse in St Johns
Sky Convention Centre fire: smoke cloaked downtown, October 2019
Former Southdown meat works: several days before it was extinguished, December 2008
Film studios at Henderson July 2014
Globe Insurance building, Durham Street City:
Grant Manning
Explosion, followed by fire, levelled this New Windsor house 2017
Avondale College, the blaze destroyed classrooms and the hall, April 1990
One of several long-duration fire-fights at metal recycling plant, Favona
Poultry farm on fire, West Auckland
St Stephen’s Church, Herne Bay
Rescue: Rainbow Warrior bombing, Auckland, July 1985
Rescue – on, and above, the water at Westhaven: car into the harbour
Progress
Inevitably one looks back over the decades and quickly realises the “good old days” have been overtaken with progress on many fronts. The scant resources we had when I began, uniform, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and intermittent training have all been added-to and improved by far. The additions over 40 years, right up to the latest equipment, have made the tasks easier, and more to the point, safer. Personal radios, pagers, modern urgent-traffic vehicles, structured training, traffic management aids and solid management of the brigade have added to today’s achievements. Members these days have a confidence and competence: collectively they’re a recognised team welcomed at incidents for the expertise they offer – and this has not always been the case when it came to volunteers.
Driving Again
In the early days fellow-member, Forbes Neil, was critical of my driving, calling me Jehu after the biblical figure known for driving his chariot furiously and recklessly in haste. I took that to heart and thought I had moderated my speed, putting Jehu behind me. (Apart from travels on the Piha Road!) No so. Recently I was the driver for a crew of some of our younger members on standby at City Station. Several times during the day I was urged to commit to calls which, while marginal, perhaps we should have been dispatched to. I declined each time, finally asking why they were so keen to respond. “We’ve heard about your driving to calls and would love to give it a go!” was the unexpected answer. Jehu, after 40 years, had reappeared! But, secretly, as an oldie, I savoured the reputation among the younger set of still being a bit sporty in my late 70’s!
Farewell
So the curtain has closed on a very pleasant and rewarding time as a volunteer in the fire services. I want to sincerely thank everyone who has supported me during this satisfying journey… to my fellow members, to LJ, my family, and many others.
All that remains is to thank you once again for the tributes and the gift, and for including my farewell as part of your Honours evening. Special thanks to members of the Management Committee who have successfully drawn this evening together.
I will cherish it always, along with the pride of having been being part of the Auckland Fire Police and Operational Support. Remembering yours is the most decorated volunteer fire Brigade in the land, with members over the years receiving no fewer than 5 Royal Honours and a Bravery Award.
Nō Reira:
Let me conclude with best wishes for the future to each and every member… and their families. To past members, longlife and good health. And to the Brigade itself, a prosperous, safe and fulfilling future as it continues volunteer service dedicated to helping others. Thank you.
Kia ora. Kia ora… mai!
RCC November 2024
