Four founders of the Onerahi Fire Brigade talk about how it all started and the recent 25-year award they received last Saturday. From left Peter Noone, Steve Balks, Brian Redwood and Mike Chubb at Onerahi volunteer fire station. Photo / Tania Whyte
Four founders of the Onerahi Fire Brigade talk about how it all started and the recent 25-year award they received last Saturday. From left Peter Noone, Steve Balks, Brian Redwood and Mike Chubb at Onerahi volunteer fire station. Photo / Tania Whyte
The desire to serve the community is what inspired four founding members of Onerahi Volunteer Fire Station to join the service 25 years ago.
Last weekend, their longstanding dedication to the service was acknowledged by several Fire and Emergency dignitaries during the 25-year Gold Star Awards held at McKay Stadium.
The Advocate caught up with the members over a table talk session, where they expressed their gratitude for being recognised for the top honour.
Station Fire Chief Mike Chubb excitedly directed everyone’s gaze to a neatly framed photo of firefighters dressed in silver jackets, yellow trousers and hard hats and said, “That’s how it all started in 1998.”
He recalled that it was primarily the “politics” that helped them form the fire station.
“There was a guy called Roger who wanted to reform the fire service and formed what were then known as the Community Safety Teams.
“So back then we were just a satellite fire station with 13 members. And it wasn’t until 2017 when Fenz came in that we became an independent station,” Chubb said.
Despite not knowing each other when they first started, they had all followed up on the same advertisement published on the Advocate pages in 1998.
Chubb said that at the time, he was working as an aircraft engineer and often had thoughts about emergency response actions after a plane crash.
“And that’s when I heard that someone was starting up a fire station. So, I made the phone call to find out and was foolish enough to get signed up,” he said, following up with a loud laugh.
His colleague and qualified firefighter Peter Noone said initially he was keen to join the Ahipara Fire Brigade as he had some social connections. However, after he moved to Onerahi for work reasons, he ended up joining the volunteer crew, and the four have long been good friends.
While for Brigade Support Steve Balks the service was a place to learn something new, for recently retired deputy Fire Chief Brian Redwood, he didn’t mind volunteering for a noble cause.
In a testament to their commitment to the community, four distinguished members of the Onerahi Fire Brigade were recently honoured with 25-year Gold Star Awards.
So far, the station firefighters have attended more than 2600 callouts, ranging from fire rescue to motor vehicle crashes and medical events, since their inception.
Months after their training as a firefighter, Redwood recalled their first fire call out on Church St.
“We all got called to this kitchen fire which looked quite manageable to extinguish. But since it was our first call as firefighters.
“We ran around like headless chickens in pure excitement to put out the fire. But because of that situation, we couldn’t remember our training either,” said Redwood with a chuckle.
Chubb said they have come a long way since and their services during Cyclone Gabrielle were a prime example.
He recalls their unit attending to to about 28 callouts on a Sunday when the cyclone raged on: “We didn’t even go home between jobs since our pagers kept on alerting us about multiple callouts and people in distress. Even after returning home at 4′oclock in the morning for a couple of hours, we repeated our whole routine again.”
The four members said not all callouts they attended were serious in nature.
“We were once called to a residence to help a guy who had locked himself in the toilet and since Brian was a builder, he was a great help,” Chubb said.
When the members are not busy firefighting, they are either occupied with their personal jobs or can be seen dressing up as Santa and elves and driving the fire engine around Onerahi every Christmas as a tradition.
“We still do what we do because we love doing it and hopefully will continue offering our services to the good community of Onerahi in years to come,” Chubb said.
Avneesh Vincent is the crime and emergency services reporter at the Advocate. He was previously at the Gisborne Herald as the arts and environment reporter and is passionate about covering stories that can make a difference. He joined NZME in July 2023.
