Firefighter Bryan Barkla, who is being recognised with a 50 Year Service Medal, says the crew at the Whanganui Fire Station are a second family to him. Photo / Eva de Jong
Firefighter Bryan Barkla, who is being recognised with a 50 Year Service Medal, says the crew at the Whanganui Fire Station are a second family to him. Photo / Eva de Jong
The Whanganui Fire Brigade Honours Night on Saturday will recognise firefighters Bryan Barkla and Henry Stechman with a 50 Year Gold Star, alongside Shane Dudley, Paul Doughty and Thomas Wilson who will receive a 25 Year Gold Star.
Reporter Eva de Jong caught up with Bryan Barkla to look back over some memorable moments from his career.
Bryan Barkla started his firefighting career as a fresh-faced 16-year-old and, after 50 years of rushing into the face of danger, he says there are a few jobs he will never forget.
A Whanganui callout that remained front of mind was the 1994 Ridgway St fire.
Six heritage buildings burned to the ground with more than 65 firefighters working to tame the fire.
“When we turned the corner and saw what we arrived to, the flame coming out of the bottom of the drapery shop was like a huge curling wave coming from beneath the veranda.
“That was a pretty spectacular sight.
“It got so hot that the officer in charge that night had to spray the firefighters whilst they were hosing down the buildings, just to try and keep them cool.”
Whanganui firefighter Bryan Barkla was part of the first team of six firefighters who turned up to the Ridgway St fire in 1994. He said the buildings were engulfed by "a huge curling wave" of flames.
The Whanganui Fire Station had recently disestablished its control room which meant after midnight on February 8, all calls would go through to Palmerston North.
Twenty minutes after midnight, the call came through about the Ridgway St fire.
“It meant that the guys that were on duty all slept through the night, we never got help from our own staff, and we had heaps of people come from out of town.
“So for the first hour, we were pretty much on our own and there were only eight of us.”
Barkla said the adrenaline started pumping straight away when firefighters heard the station alarm bell and it did not ease up until long after the job ended.
He had also witnessed some hilarious moments out on jobs.
“There’s been one of our own firefighters falling through a floor and getting their backside burned because they’ve gone astride a burning ember.”
Whanganui firefighter Bryan Barkla hoses a scrub fire in Savage Crescent, Aramoho, 1995.
After becoming a member of the Urban Search and Rescue Central team in 2006, Barkla had five deployments.
He spent 28 days working in Christchurch after the 2011 earthquake and said it was the most confronting disaster situation he had been in.
“People only saw what they saw on TV and it didn’t really convey the extent of the damage.
“I find it really difficult to talk about what we saw, even now, and for a long time afterwards I didn’t like to talk about it.
“When we went back to Christchurch later on a trip, it was so hard to figure out where we were because all of the landmarks were gone and the buildings had been bulldozed.”
He became a career firefighter in 1979 and then switched over to a full-time training position in 2004.
In 2010, he became the national training and data administrator and helped to create databases for the New Zealand Fire Service until his retirement in 2021.
In one of the first accidents Barkla attended, a man had come off his motorbike in Hāwera and slid down the road, removing most of his face.
“It’s the way you look at life and look at things, I’ve seen a bit.”
To cope with the pressure of the job, Barkla has found running to be a good stress release.
“We had a 1km route we’d marked out around the block.
“You’d go out and run 6km and hope that the bell didn’t go for a fire call whilst you were way down the route, else you’d have to sprint back up the street to hop on the fire truck.”
Since 2021, Barkla has continued as a volunteer firefighter and said the crew at the Whanganui Fire Station had always been a second family to him.
“I’ve got two families, one at home and one here.”
