Food and a chance to catch up at the Waipawa Fire Station, as Property Brokers Waipukurau helps the Central Hawke’s Bay community thank its volunteer firefighters.
Food and a chance to catch up at the Waipawa Fire Station, as Property Brokers Waipukurau helps the Central Hawke’s Bay community thank its volunteer firefighters.
“It’s not often we get thanked to this extent,” said Waipukurau Volunteer Fire Brigade’s chief fire officer Steve Walker, as he brandished a burger in one hand and a cold drink in the other.
Steve was one of more than 100 volunteer firefighters and their families, from brigades across Central Hawke’s Bay, invited to a barbecue put on by Property Brokers Waipukurau to thank them for their outstanding work during February’s Cyclone Gabrielle.
Property Brokers Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne regional manager Joe Snee, standing not too far from the barbecue table himself, said “Everyone got out and put in a huge amount of hard work over the time of the cyclone and we wanted to say thank you for all they did.
“Central Hawke’s Bay is such a cool community and they know how to look after one another.”
Matt Oliver of Property Brokers Waipukurau - himself a volunteer firefighter - makes sure the sausages and patties don’t get charred.
The Waipukurau Property Brokers staff have an inside track on what it means to be a volunteer firefighter. Real Estate agent Matt Oliver is a longtime member of the Otane brigade and sales consultant Ellen Hunt has recently joined the Waipawa brigade.
They were part of the CHB brigades’ combined cyclone response on Tuesday, February 14.
In fact, says Steve, who was fire response coordinator throughout the cyclone and its aftermath, planning for the potentially devastating event started on the Friday before.
“We knew there was going to be a major event, we just didn’t know to what extent. We met Central Hawke’s Bay District Council on Friday and spent Sunday and most of Monday planning.
“We knew what to expect if it went the way it did, all the brigades were prepared.”
As the waters rose in Waipawa on February 14, CHB’s volunteer firefighters were helping evacuate threatened homes and properties.
Steve says the speed of the Waipawa evacuation was down to the amount of planning - evacuation was on track an hour before the Waipawa stopbanks burst.
“It was a great response from all teams, from Police and from the council, systems were in place and it all tracked well.”
After the initial emergency, volunteer crews stayed active in Waipawa right through to the next weekend helping the community clean up.
As a new recruit to the Waipawa brigade, Ellen Hunt says it was rewarding to be able to help during the emergency.
“How many firefighters have been able to do something like this? I saw volunteers whose homes were flooded helping the community before they even attempted to go home to check their own houses. They were evacuating others, putting them first.
“Families were coping with it - many of the firefighters have young children so partners were holding the fort at home while they had no water, no power.”
Ellen says she had always wanted to volunteer as a firefighter but a recent move to Central Hawke’s Bay meant it was time.
She has since discovered that her great-grandfather Tip Taylor was a member of the Waipawa Volunteer Fire Brigade.
“People don’t realise how much volunteer firefighters do, from medical callouts to car crashes, not only fires. And of course, natural disasters. A thank you barbecue was well earned, but we also thank our employers who enable us to volunteer, and our families for supporting us.”
