Linda Hall: Message reaches young ones

Photo / File

I had the pleasure of taking one of the little people in my life to a music group in Tamatea last Tuesday.

It just so happened that it was "red day" and the Napier Fire Brigade was there, well four of them anyway, along with a big, red shiny fire truck parked out front.

Inside, one of the firemen, named Waka, was seated on a little chair in front of a whole lot of excited children.

Waka was brilliant with the kids. He asked simple questions, heaped praise upon those that answered, gave high-fives and handled the excited children with ease.

He had a smoke alarm and thoughtfully told everyone to cover their ears before he set it off. He then held up an oxygen mask and said he was going to put it on - but if anyone felt scared they just had to say so and he would take it off.

Then half the children went outside to sit in the fire engine while the other half were shown how to get down on the ground and crawl under smoke.

The firemen gave out stickers and there were pamphlets for everyone to take home.

I wondered what kind of feedback the brigade got from going out to community groups so I phoned Senior Station Officer at Napier, Glenn Drew.

He said they had a "really great response from pre-school, primary and intermediate schools".

"We get a better response than when we try to educate adults. The children go home and tell their parents and grandparents. We often get calls about smoke alarms after these programmes."

The Napier Fire Brigade is a composite station (made up of both paid staff and volunteers) and Mr Drew said the community paid a huge part in helping the brigade.

"Volunteers have to have the support of their employers and their colleagues who may have to pick up work when the volunteer is called out. I have heard of one volunteer who had to give up because of this but that is unusual."

The brigade has recently launched a new campaign called Fire Awareness Intervention Programme (FAIP).

"If we find out that a fire has been initiated by a young person we have trained people who will go into their home and help them to get a healthy relationship with fire.

"Another new initiative is Code Purple. We will be responding to more medical call outs in support of St John Ambulance."

Asked what he liked about being in the Fire Service, Mr Drew said he liked working with the community and "feeling like I am making a difference in the community".

My great-nephew Dillan Adamson, who is in his early 20s, has recently joined the Havelock Fire Brigade.

I asked him why he had volunteered.

"I wanted to take on a bit of responsibility and help people, " he said.

Four weeks in and he has been called out a few times, helping with traffic.

He trains every Monday night and is looking forward to going to Rotorua for a national training course.

"My boss is completely on board with it and supports me. My goal is to go up the ranks, and one day be a fulltime fireman. I feel really proud when I'm wearing the uniform."

We are lucky in Hawke's Bay to have such a fantastic core group of people looking out for us, from the region's fire brigades to St John Ambulance, the police, and all our search and rescue people. Because of them, I feel in safe hands.

Oh and just quietly, I'm proud of Dillan too.

• Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.