NZ deputy fire chief's day on frontline

New Zealand Fire Service Deputy National Commander Paul McGill, left, Station Officer Garry Nielsen, and senior Masterton firefighters Murray Pike, Barry Baxter and Lance Harris. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

A Masterton fire crew have helped return New Zealand Fire Service Deputy National Commander Paul McGill to frontline firefighter duties for a day.

Mr McGill spent the day with a four-man career fire crew in Masterton on Monday as part of a scheme in which senior managers refreshed themselves with frontline firefighting as opposed to their usual management routine, Station Officer Garry Nielsen said.

"It was just frontline basic work that we do every day at the fire station," he said.

"He's deputy national commander and he just drives a desk.

"But he is responsible at the top end and chose to come here and revisit what it was like when he was a regular firefighter.

"He has put that focus on all senior managers, to get them back to grassroots to see what it's like on the frontline again. We're a little isolated here, so he came and, for the first time, spent the day with us," Mr Nielsen said.

Mr McGill accompanied the fire crew, which included Mr Nielsen and senior firefighters Murray Pike, Lance Harris and Barry Baxter, to a Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) event in central Masterton to mark the deaths and injuries caused to teens on New Zealand roads over the past decade. Helium-filled balloons were released in remembrance and each firefighter joined the students in sending a balloon skywards.

Mr Nielsen said the ceremony was a special event that had been arranged before Mr McGill planned his day in Masterton and the fire crew also took him to visit the Juken mill, which has its own volunteer fire crew made up of mill workers.

The crew and Mr McGill also completed some "hands-on motor vehicle extrication exercises," Mr Nielsen said.

"It's good to get back and revisit how things are done."

Mr McGill was originally an Auckland-based firefighter who rose through the ranks to become national deputy commander in 2012.

He is responsible for providing overall service leadership; ensuring that the service has effective policies, systems and practices to successfully reduce the incidence and consequence of fire; and to deliver professional emergency response services.