Fire Brigade

The Martinborough Fire Brigade has always enjoyed incredible support from the community. This has included helping us purchase emergency equipment such as the JAWS of Life and two defibrillators, as well as raise funds for the Brigade van and our Centennial Celebrations in 2006.

Recently, the Brigade decided the hangers along the wall used to hold members emergency turnout gear was just not up to scratch. Boots, coats, gloves and all the vital protective clothing was jammed together on hooks along the length of a wall without dividers, making the rush to get “ready to roll” for a emergency sometimes too chaotic. We needed purpose built lockers to hold all the personal protection gear and nothing standard would do the job at a reasonable cost.

One of our own brigade members, Daniel Meehan, came to the rescue to design and build lockers perfectly matched to our requirements. Once they were completed, we needed some advice on the best way to seal the wood to avoid the mud and water on the fire boots wrecking the beautiful finish.

A call to Nigel McCartney of Country Mile Painters resulted not only in free advice but a very generous donation of the sealer and his crew of professional painters to do the job. Nigel said he was more than happy to donate the job as he was grateful for the response to his serious motorcycle accident a couple of years ago. A very big thanks to Dan and Nigel for their time and expertise, we are very pleased with the result.

The number of callouts has increased with the return of warm weather. In October and November the Brigade responded to 4 vegetation fires, two requests for medical assistance, a tractor fire, two structure fires, one false alarm activation, and an injury from an overturned 4 wheeler. Fortunately, the injury was not life threatening but highlights the dangers inherent in these vehicles. 

The Brigade had recently conducted a full turnout training drill to practice patient care and rescue in a mock accident involving 2 quad bikes. The was in conjunction with Wairarapa Quad Adventures who provide  the bikes and assisted in transporting rescue personal to the remote site of the drill. 

One of the structure fires was caused by birds nesting under the iron roof next to a light fitting.  As this is the time of year for birds to build nests, this is a reminder to check areas that birds might build nests and clear out any build up of flammable material.

Submitted by Richard Geisler for CFO Garry Jackson.