Fire. A big topic at present with those devastating fires in Nelson.
The fire alarm just sounded here in McLeod Bay at 6.20 on a monday evening. It's always a scary sound. The local volunteer fire station at the end of my road use a WW2 air raid warning alarm to alert the volunteers in the area to come and take off in the fire engine. Sure enough, within minutes I heard the siren on the truck as it trundled off to some emergency.
It's pretty impressive to think that this service, manned by volunteers who have their own jobs and interests, when their Monday night dinner is interrupted, manage to assemble at the station and take off again - in minutes.
Well, I'm impressed.
It's not always fires that are the emergency. The brigade call out for storm damage, medical events, traffic accidents and just about anything else that threatens life and limb.
I'm attending a meeting tomorrow night at the fire station. I'm a member of the Civil Defence Response Group and we have the fire station as a meeting point. It's interesting being inside a fire station. It's the kind of place that we all see from the outside but rarely get a look at inside.
I remember though when I was at college that one of the jobs that dad did was plastering the tower of the Kilbirnie fire station and I was helping him. It must have been the school holidays.
This was great fun as the fire crew gave us a good look around and in the main building we got to go down the fireman's pole.
I had a great time in school holidays helping dad on the various building sites - Ian Athfield houses, coastal boats and interisland ferries, high rise buildings, the Oriental Bay fountain, the Carillon, and lots of other things.
Here's a salute to our brave firemen!
I remember though when I was at college that one of the jobs that dad did was plastering the tower of the Kilbirnie fire station and I was helping him. It must have been the school holidays.
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| Kilbirnie fire station (tower on the right). |
This was great fun as the fire crew gave us a good look around and in the main building we got to go down the fireman's pole.
I had a great time in school holidays helping dad on the various building sites - Ian Athfield houses, coastal boats and interisland ferries, high rise buildings, the Oriental Bay fountain, the Carillon, and lots of other things.
Here's a salute to our brave firemen!
3 comments:
Bless 'em all.
"Whangarei Heads Fire Station." Sounds like a newspaper headline where Whangarei is leading the Fire Station in a race or a game of something.
"Whangarei Heads Fire Station" screamed the headlines in all major newspapers.
The small local community volunteer station has managed to head off all other stations in the country whether large or small.
"We put it down to community care, awareness and a sense of responsibility" said Humbert the elected spokesperson for the group.
"We put effort into what's important" he said, finishing his cigarette before tossing the butt beside the path. "Take Nuova Lazio for example" he said while spitting a bog gob of phlegm onto the path and unfortunately on to this reporter's shoes. "That community is in trouble. We've heard of residents getting up early and chucking people's newspapers over fences. Well, I ask you - can they be relied on in an emergency?"
When asked for other examples from Nuova Lazio, Humbert seemed a bit vague before mumbling something about potholes in the carpark at the local mall and some particularly noisy musicians reportedly playing arcane instruments in the suburbs causing problems.
When pushed about other areas he brightened up and mentioned Moera where residents setting light to rubbish bins was more the norm than actually volunteering to put out fires. "I just don't understand it" said Humbert scratching his rapidly balding head "they spend most of their free time going to church and believing in mythical deities and would rather go up in flames here on earth as long as they don't go down in flames in an imaginary hell. weird".
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