Have smoke alarm will travel

By BRIDGET CARTER

Jammed behind pieces of tin, fastened on top of stair wells and screwed inside campervans - there are not many places Dave McKenzie has not crept inside to install a smoke alarm.

He drives his fire-safety van through the outskirts of Kaitaia almost every day, squeezing in nearly 20 hours of the voluntary work around day and night shifts at the Northland Mill in Kaitaia.

In six years he has installed more than 1000 alarms and routinely visits 17 schools. Some days he drives 160km to as many as eight homes.

Fifty-six-year-old Dave "Squid" McKenzie became a firefighting volunteer 36 years ago to put something back into the community.

These days he concentrates on fire safety, but he still spends most of his time at the Kaitaia Fire Station. "My wife says I should move my bed down here."

Today is a quiet day - just one school, three houses and a quick stop off at the bank to fix up a fire-safety display.

Checking smoke-alarm batteries is the first job. He crosses a swing bridge and walks through a paddock to a renovated cow shed, home to a mother and her 5-year-old son.

Until recently, it had no power and compressed wool in the roof for insulation. The wool has gone after Mr McKenzie said it was a fire hazard - "you have to get rid of that".

Part of what drives the local volunteer is getting out and finding people living in some of the most fire-hazardous conditions in Northland - the region topping the country's fire fatalities.

Last month a man died in a house fire at Otaua, just southwest of Kaikohe. He became the region's 13th fire fatality in five years.

Some are living in houses that have been abandoned for 20 years, others have sacks over the windows.

"There is nothing we can do about it," he says. Many chose to live that way. So a smoke alarm is one way to make things more safe.

Mr McKenzie is the eyes and ears of the volunteers. He will not notice if a home is untidy, but quickly spots a dangerously hanging curtain or a tea towel by the stove.

Fire Service advertisements ask people to ring the Kaitaia Fire Station if they want Mr McKenzie to install an alarm.

Three years ago he could hardly keep up with the demand, he says. But a new fire-safety campaign begun in Northland last year has made a difference.

The Kaitaia station bought 200 alarms, and they have lasted a lot longer than Mr McKenzie expected. They cost $3000 and he reckons they are worth every penny.