Alan Hickford has clocked up 50 years of service with the Waverley Volunteer Fire Brigade.
Alan Hickford has clocked up 50 years of service with the Waverley Volunteer Fire Brigade.
Waverley fire chief Alan Hickford was hoping for a small gathering to mark a special occasion in his long firefighting career.
But there's no such luck for Hickford whose 50 years of service to the Waverley Volunteer Fire Brigade will bring Fire and Emergency New Zealand bigwigs, and a hostof other guests, to the Waverley Rugby Club rooms in late August.
His daughter Sarah Hickford, a station officer with the brigade, says it will be a huge occasion for the volunteer brigade, with Hickford the first person in its history to achieve a 50-year medal.
"Dad wanted a small gathering but we've got the FENZ hierarchy coming, family and brigades from the area and our old area manager coming from Australia," Sarah Hickford said.
Alan Hickford clocks up his 50th anniversary on July 28, with the formal celebration to be held on August 24.
The Waverley brigade's old 1937 Dennis fire engine.
"There were no uniforms, no nothing," Hickford said.
"I've seen some huge changes in the fire service. Today all the pumps are well-equipped. We moved into the new fire station [in Bear St] in 1987. We've got firefighting uniforms and the latest rescue equipment.
"The fire service management style has changed a lot in the last 20 years."
Hickford has been the chief fire officer since 1992 or 1993, though he's sketchy about the exact date, and says it's harder to recruit volunteers these days.
"I'm self-employed so, unless I'm working with other contractors, I can go any time I like. It's a lot harder now for volunteers to get away from their jobs.
"A lot of the crew are farmers. They can't just walk away and leave the cows to milk themselves.
"False alarms annoy me. They drag people away from work for no reason.
"For eight years we had no station officer or deputy chief. We would have been really pushed if some of the crew hadn't stepped up and got things done. They all have allocated jobs. If they do their jobs, it's quite cruisy."
The brigade currently has 13 volunteers but should have 20 firefighters and four operational support crew.
Recruitment can be a challenge and the number of crew members changes all the time, Hickford said.
"In small communities, beggars can't be choosers but the recruitment process is stringent," he said.
"We've been as low as five or six firefighters. It's a long process for training.
"We used to have a cadet scheme until they shut Waverley High School down. The students came and trained with us and we've got a couple of them still with us."
The brigade trains for two hours every Tuesday evening and crew members go to training courses around New Zealand. Occasionally there are on-station training courses at weekends.
The brigade's fire engine and gear are a far cry from what it had when Alan Hickford joined 50 years ago.
From time to time the brigade provides back-up in Whanganui and it attended the major Ridgway St and racecourse fires. However, these days it's more likely that the Whanganui brigade will go to assist Waverley.
"That's changed. We know there's at least one more pump coming, if not two. We always know we've got that back-up."
The brigade receives an average of 70 calls a year. A lot of them are medical-related, something the Waverley brigade has always been involved with due to the absence of a local ambulance.
Vehicle accidents, illegal fires during summer and fires that "get away on people" are the next most common events.
"We have a very low number of structure fires here, even compared with other small brigades. We do go to help other brigades with structure fires."
While the number of vehicle incidents has decreased in recent years, Hickford said the brigade had a tough time with two fatal crashes in one week in 2018.
The first was a crash on Kohi Rd on Monday, June 25, in which a truck driver died. The second was the major two-car crash on State Highway 3 on Wednesday, June 27, that killed seven people, including two children.
"We knew all the locals involved in the crash," Hickford said.
"A couple of them had been in the station just a couple of days before - they lived just down the road.
"It's really hard when kids are involved."
Hickford said good support had been provided for the volunteer firefighters who attended the crash.
"The fire service has a very good critical incident support team and they were here at the station before the crew even got back."
Along with the hard work, there are good times for the crew. They hold functions at the fire station and Hickford says most people around town are "pretty helpful".
Hickford says he still enjoys his role as fire chief and has no plans to step down at this stage.
He smiles as he talks about a 91-year-old who recently retired from a fire brigade.
"He wasn't fighting fires any more but he was still pottering around the station doing things."
