Whangamatā Volunteer Fire Brigade undertake a demonstration at the station on Saturday.
Whangamatā Volunteer Fire Brigade undertake a demonstration at the station on Saturday.
Whangamatā Volunteer Fire Brigade showed off their skills over the weekend with an annual open day which included a jaws of life demonstration.
The Whangamatā station was packed on Saturday morning with adults and children who witnessed the brigade in action.
The jaws of life demonstrations saw multiple firefighters cut the roof of a vehicle in an exercise that reflected a real time rescue.
Whangamatā Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Nigel Airey said the jaws of life demonstration was just as much about the brigade keep its skills up as showing the public what it could do.
“Our jaws of life are for our motor vehicle accidents, so if people can wear their seatbelts it makes our job a lot easier to start with, if people are contained then injuries are reduced greatly with wearing seatbelts.
“So, there is a bit of self-awareness for that; also, we have done some fist aid fire stuff; we are in agreement with St John, so we attend many medical incidents.”
Airey said the Onemana and Whiritioa brigades were in attendance and also took part in the exercise.
A number of fire appliances were on display, much to the enjoyment of adults and children.
The open day was about showing off equipment, the brigade and members, he said.
“It is about public interaction, a lot of fire safety stuff.
“Whatever we can prevent; better than us turning up after the fact; it is an annual event, it used to be Easter but Easter clashes with other things and dates.
“With it being spring, we can check our fire alarms, every six months, it is a good reminder; things are also starting to dry up for our rural and vegetation, so it’s a good awareness activity.”
Airey said the fire appliances on display were popular with adults and children.
“We have a main pump truck with medical equipment, we have a truck with cutting gear and rescue equipment, and we have a ute which is fit for purpose.”
The Whangamatā brigade had 26 volunteers on its books but was always looking for more people, he said.
“We all work, we have family commitments, we all fluctuate in age, right down to late teens, on any given day we can be a little bit short on firefighters, especially during the working week, so we just try to keep the numbers right up.”
As summer approached, he said there would be a big vegetation risk, and with steep terrain in the surrounding areas, the risk was even higher.
“Steep terrain presents a higher because the fire preheats things at the top; if we can reduce the risk to start with like keeping roadside vegetation cut and keeping debris away from houses.
“Also, we need to get our fire trucks into these properties, so again, cut trees away from house, we need to get out trucks into driveways, across cattle stops; it also helps to have good numbering on properties.”
He said there was always room for more members in the brigade.
“If you have interest in joining us, there are plenty of roles, it doesn’t have to be a frontline firefighter, we have operations support and we have brigade support.
“There is always a role for everybody, come along on a Wednesday night between, we train between 6.30pm and 9pm.
“Otherwise just get in touch with one of our members, we can catch up and run through the great buzz you get out of being in a team.”
