Two men who between them have given more than half a century's service were jointly named Kaitaia Fire Brigade's Firefighter of the Year at Saturday night's awards function.
Station Officer Craig Rogers (21 years) and firefighter Allen (Snow) Bray (33 years) became the last holders of the Eric Clarke Memorial Trophy. Next year it will be succeeded by the Terry Houghton Trophy, in memory of the long-serving Chief Fire Officer who died early last year.
Mr Bray had actually retired and routinely served as a fire officer, CFO Colin Kitchen said, but continued to do his bit around the station and more often than not responded, to alarms.
A total of 16 service honours were presented on Saturday night, recognising more than 200 years of collective service.
Two-year gold bars were awarded to Brian Shepherd (33 years), Snow Bray (33 years) and Ron Attwood (29 years). Two-year silver bars were presented to Ross Beddows (23 years), Craig Rogers (21 years), Grant baker (17 years), Selwyn Subritzky (15 years), Garry Rush (11 years), Grant Libby (11 years), Andre Meads (nine years) and Andrew Staub (seven years).
