National Volunteer Week: Whakatāne firefighting family love their work

The Rhodes family (from left): Emerson, Jamie, Tracy and Jordyn.

When Tracy Rhodes began firefighting in Whakatāne, it was a tough working environment for a woman.

Growing up in Tāneatua where her dad was the chief fire officer, for Rhodes becoming a firefighter wasn’t a question, but a way of life.

Rhodes is now the station officer at the Whakatāne Fire Station and says “it took a long time to be accepted by some people that females could actually do this”.

Rhodes spoke to the Rotorua Daily Post ahead of Volunteer Awareness Week and says she is proud to have six women regularly training and volunteering at the Whakatāne station.

They include Jordyn, her 18-year-old daughter and her eldest daughter, Emmerson, who is 22.

Her husband Jamie was not a firefighter when they metbut later became a rural firefighter and is now the chief controller of the Eastern Bay Volunteer Fire Brigade.

He had previously deployed to help fight fires in Australia and Canada.

Jamie Rhodes attending a fire in the Grizzly Bear Complex in Alberta, Canada alongside crews from NZ and Australia.

Jamie helped fight the Canadian wildfires twice last year and helped to battle the Australian bushfires in November.

“He loves bringing back new ideas and new technology, all the things from what he sees from other crews in other countries. He likes to try to bring back as much knowledge to his crew as he can,” Rhodes said.

Jamie Rhodes, chief controller of the Eastern Bay Volunteer Fire Brigade, helped fight a fire in the Grizzly Bear Complex in Alberta, Canada.

Her two girls helped battle the Matakana Island fire at Christmastime.

“We leave our families, we leave our jobs if we can, we’re up all night. We might go out to two or three calls in the night and then have to get up at 6am to get ready to go to work.

“I mean, we love doing it. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t want to.”

Volunteer firefighter Jordyn Rhodes after rescuing a kitten from a car engine.

According to Fire and Emergency New Zealand, volunteers make up around 80 per cent of their workforce and they have more than 11,800 volunteers.

Rhodes said people generally knew firefighters were volunteers and many people who commented on their Facebook page were understanding.

“The majority of the comments are very appreciative. They’re very kind and I think people do understand, but just not everybody,” Rhodes said.

There had been times while attending car accidents with her daughter where she had to be professional before being a mum.

“We’ve been in volatile situations with bystanders on the side of the road - kind of, you know, tense situations - and I think, ‘Oh, get away from my daughter’.

“I have to not show it because I have to just do my job, but there are times where I think, ‘Crikey that’s my daughter’.”

Rhodes said volunteers just wanted to help their communities.

Standing at 1.58m, Rhodes said her height often came in handy when a task involved climbing through a window.

“They look at you and go, ‘Right, you’re in, no question’.”

Tracy Rhodes attending the Apanui School fire in Whakatāne in 2022.

As station officer, she is in charge of the crew at the incident.

“I’m sending my own daughter into burning buildings and I am trusting who I send in with her.”

Rhodes said firefighters trained to work in pairs: “There’s no one I wouldn’t send in with her.”

Firefighters train once a week, and because Jordyn is in the urban and rural crews, she trains twice a week.

“You become a firefighter, then a qualified firefighter, then a senior firefighter, and then you move up into the officer side of things,” Rhodes said.

Having followed in her father’s footsteps and now having her daughters follow in hers, she says, “I’m very proud of them and they do really good jobs.”