Towards the end of February I attended an event at Tora where the council gifted an Emergency Resource Container and its contents to the Tora community. This is part of our recovery and resilience building efforts following the extreme weather events of 2023. For me, however, the memorable aspect of the event was the part played by the local fire service. It was a reminder of what a valuable role these people play in the life of rural and remote New Zealand.
There are four fire stations in the Martinborough area, at Tora, Ngawi, Lake Ferry and Martinborough itself. Everyone who works at one of these stations is a volunteer and that is often only possible through the support of employers such as Lisa’s Electrical, Mitre 10, and Unichem.
I am not sure if everybody appreciates the way that the role of the fire service has expanded in recent years. Once upon a time they went to fires and car crashes, but their role is now much wider. The nearest ambulance station to Martinborough is in Greytown, which means that it will be a long time before an ambulance can get to a medical emergency in Pirinoa or White Rock. Four years ago, the fire team in Martinborough started the process of becoming medical first responders. This involved hundreds of hours of training provided by Wellington Free Ambulance. It also involved a change in focus for many members of the brigade who are now approved to do paramedical treatments such as provide pain relief, administer injections and much more.
I understand that the Martinborough unit was one of the first fire brigades to be fully trained in this way, but similar approaches can now be found throughout the country. As a result, the number of calls that many fire brigades get has doubled. At present, many brigades attend far more medical emergencies than they attend fires.
I have two points to make. The first is that we are very fortunate to have a large group of people in all four stations who give up their time to be trained to turn up and deal with emergencies. That includes fires, medical emergencies, car crashes, search and rescue, and civil defence emergencies. Can I ask that you find ways to show that you recognise what these people do for us and find ways to say, “Thank you.”
My second point is to observe that some people in the town need a wake-up call in order to appreciate the service we get. I will not repeat some of the comments made in newspaper articles that floated around at the beginning of the year. However, people who complain to the media and generate click-bait stories while saying how they do not want to be named due to the “small-town nature of Martinborough” should take a good look at themselves.
In the South Wairarapa we have three small towns, and most of us like it that way. True, we don’t have some of the benefits of living in cities, but we need to recognise and value the things we do have. Chief among those things is the willingness of our neighbours to volunteer to support our community. And to the unnamed moaner of Martinborough, can I misquote Fred Dagg and point out that “you don’t know how lucky you are.”
