Neil Patrick has worked as a firefighter in Masterton, Hamilton and the Bay of Plenty over the past 41 years. Photo / George Novak
Neil Patrick has worked as a firefighter in Masterton, Hamilton and the Bay of Plenty over the past 41 years. Photo / George Novak
Neil Patrick is calling time on 14-hour overnight shifts and traumatic jobs after 41 years battling fires and clearing crash scenes.
One of Tauranga's longest-serving firefighters, he is signing off for good and is "very relaxed and very happy about leaving."
The 67-year-old Greerton Fire Brigade station officer yesterdaytold the Bay of Plenty Times it was "time to go" after a lengthy career.
"I am very relaxed and very happy about leaving. I will miss the people, but I am over the work itself. The night calls, day calls, trauma work with ambulance. I won't miss that.
"But after 41 years I can still say I am happy to get out of bed and come to work."
Patrick started as a firefighter in Masterton in November 1979 when he was 26.
"I had been in two or three other jobs that I wasn't particularly happy in, and someone suggested I should look into being a firefighter. That was the end of that."
Neil Patrick has worked at Greerton Fire Station for the past seven years. Photo / George Novak
Seven years later he transferred to Hamilton and eventually moved into the position of station officer. In 2006 he did a nine-year stint at the Kawerau Fire Station. The last seven years of his career had been in Greerton.
One of the most traumatic moments in Patrick's career was attending the deadly 1995 New Empire Hotel blaze in Hamilton.
Six people died as a result of the fire. Former hotel resident Alan Lory was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 1996, after being convicted of six counts of manslaughter and arson.
"We could see people in windows upstairs waiting for us to get them and two minutes later they weren't there. We couldn't get up to them fast enough and they died as a result of the fire," Partick recalled.
"They were relying on us to help them, save them and get them out. That was quite traumatic at the time."
He also vividly remembered the Tamahere coolstore fire in 2008, which seriously injured some of his colleagues.
"It just reminds you what the job is about – you never know what you are going to be going to next. And that's part of the thrill of the job, you never know what the day is going to present you."
Neil Patrick has worked as a firefighter in Masterton, Hamilton and the Bay of Plenty over the past 41 years. Photo / George Novak
The Whakaari/White Island eruption also served as a reminder of how fickle life could be.
"We were there to decontaminate police teams coming back off the island after they were doing body recovery.
"It was pretty sobering because you had an idea of what they went through on the island."
Patrick said he was one of the "older hardheads" at the station who was used to attending traumatic incidents.
"But it does affect our staff. The job has presented trauma and unusual things to see that you wouldn't see in a normal working life. You do recover, and you cope."
He said these incidents could have a "cumulative effect" on firefighters' emotional wellbeing.
"It doesn't always become evident straight away – often it can take weeks for something to start manifesting. As a work supervisor, it is often my job to pick up what is going on with staff."
Patrick emphasised the importance of bringing these issues out into the open with colleagues.
"You sit around and have a talk about it, bring it out into the open and don't let the incident fester inside you and cause you issues later on."
Black humour was also used among firefighters to get through tough situations.
He said the organisation's approach to staff well-being had changed drastically over the past 41 years.
"People were probably ignored 41 years ago if they turned up showing signs of stress or emotion. They were told to harden up probably but that's not how we operate today. We are a little bit more PC about it.
"We have people dedicated to looking at ways we can do things better in terms of psychological well-being. It is well overdue for it to be available and happening – but there is a lot of work to do."
Patrick said he was thrilled to now have more time to do what he loved outside of work.
This included exploring the country in his new caravan with his wife, playing golf, mountain biking and spending quality time with the grandchildren.
"We definitely won't be short of activities."
He finished his final shift on Tuesday having a few quiet beers with the team and had planned a proper final goodbye later in the month.
