Whanganui fire force wins in Hawera

Winning Whanganui rural firefighters (from left) Aaron Whitford, Gavin Pryce, Andrew Simons, Blair Gray, Aaron Hartley and Kimberly Troughton. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED

Members of Whanganui's Rural Fire Force returned from a competition on Sunday with two trophies - and a little wet.

The team of four and one reserve, with coach Gavin Pryce, competed in the Taranaki Central Wajax Competition. They were watched by the public at the Hawera A & P Show on Sunday.

The competition is for crews that fight vegetation fires, and there were four competing.

The Whanganui team won outright on time, and also picked up the First Water Trophy. For winning outright they got thrown into the big water-filled canvas bladder used in the competition.

Each team has to set up a Wajax pump at the water supply, connect hoses and fittings and then knock down a series of targets. Practise, skills and accuracy are needed, and the fastest team wins.

"You have four people going absolutley flat out," Mr Pryce said.

Whanganui's time was 1m38secs. The next closest time was two and a half minutes.

"We beat them by 50 seconds, which is a huge amount."

The team had been practising for three months and were "stoked" by their win. They have offered to host the next competition in Whanganui. It will be in April next year, possibly at the racecourse or Cooks Gardens.

Sunday's was a first for this region. Next year they hope to have teams from Rangitikei, Manawatu and Ruapehu as well as Taranaki.

The Whanganui Rural Fire Force has about 15 paid casual and on-call firefighters. They all carry pagers during summer.

When pagers go off they head to their base at the Whanganui Fire Station, pick up their yellow trucks and head out.