KEY POINTS:
He's been credited with saving lives and going beyond the call of duty to prevent fires, but fire safety officer George Stephens says it's just part of the job.
Mr Stephens' efforts in the Counties-Manukau area earned him a highly commended gong at the New Zealand Community Safety and Injury Prevention Awards, which are part of the Accident Compensation Corporation's Safety NZ Week, last night.
He was nominated by Alzheimer's Counties Manukau, which frequently calls on him to help its clients.
"The people we look after can be more at risk of house fires than other New Zealanders," said Jan McInnes from the organisation.
"George's passion, professionalism, manner, sense of humour and understanding allows him to develop a great rapport with our clients. He often goes beyond the call of duty to achieve a good outcome for that person."
She said an example of Mr Stephen's commitment was when he arranged for an alarm with strobe lighting to alert the deaf caregiver of an Alzheimer's sufferer to a fire.
He then organised for the caregiver's dog to undergo training from Hearing Dogs for the Deaf so it would react appropriately to the smoke alarm.
Mr Stephens, who has been a firefighter for 23 years, is a familiar sight around South Auckland, often driving a kitchen trailer around to demonstrate how not looking when you're cooking can go horribly wrong.
He said the area used to have one of the worst records in Auckland for fires and fatalities, but it has improved because of more people installing smoke alarms.
Meanwhile, an Auckland company's willingness to put children's safety before profits has made it a finalist in the awards.
The Waitakere City Council wanted to install 40km/h electronic signs at all of its 67 schools over one year but the $18,000 price tag for each was too steep. It asked HMI Technologies, which manufactures the signs, to install them over three years so it could pay them off. But the company offered to install them straight away and allow the council to pay them off and also gave them a discount.
"For us it was obvious," said managing director Ahmed Hikmet.
"We wanted to give something back to the community that would benefit everyone. And as parents ourselves we know that controlling traffic around schools is very important, so we devised a way we could install all the signs quickly and keep the children safe, without putting financial strain on the council."
