Volunteers man the station
When the siren goes in Martinborough, 72 year-old Richard Geisler is ready to head out to a fire, a car accident or a medical emergency.
Failing the fire fighting strength test which requires a recruit to strap on a heavy breathing apparatus, crawl through tunnels, over obstacles and then pull a dummy from a darkened building, did not stop him from volunteering.
The senior station officer is in operations support which provides back up for the Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade.
“I can do just about anything except actual fire fighting in a building. I can be on a fire ground as I did last weekend. I went on the second track to take a hydrant to run some hose, we can direct traffic, or clean up if I’ve been safety officer.”
Rick has always been keen to contribute to the community but his working life was spent in an office, most recently as the chief actuary at ACC.
“I had a desk job my whole life but the other side of me always wanted to be hands on. The whole thing about desk jobs, often, is you don’t really get a lot of feedback.
“You do the job, you meet with management or the board, or in my case at ACC, you meet with the minister, and it was all great; enjoyed the challenge but often you don’t see, at the end of the day, what you’ve actually accomplished in the same way when you’re in some job that requires you to physically do things and make decisions that quickly you can see the result of.
“Certainly in the fire service, when you make decisions on a fire ground, you see it pretty quickly.”
No longer at sea
Another volunteer at the brigade is John Mansell, who spent most of his life at sea.
The 73 year-old was a master mariner and only retired mid last year, before he and his wife made the move to Martinborough.
He’s taken up a different role as the secretary of the brigade.
“I don’t get involved with the practical side of fire fighting but look after the administrative side, entering records of incidents and training, keeping the system up to date, working with Rick, so in a sense we complement each other.
"I had no idea what I was walking into at the time. Rick completely fooled me and said it would be a couple of hours a week; well, it's a bit more than that sometimes, quite often but I don't mind because I've got the time."
John was keen to make a contribution to his new community, far from the sea.
“This is a complete change. I’ve always lived in sight of the sea, my whole life has been involved with the sea, and now I’ve shifted somewhere where you can’t even see the sea. We were looking for a change and a new lifestyle.
“Before we came I was thinking I needed to get involved in voluntary work, I’ve never really done that in my working life.
Participating in the brigade has also provided John with new friends.
“It was a way of meeting people in the community, getting to know them and being part of the community, and helping the community. That was the aim of me thinking about volunteering.”
All hands to the pump
Rick finds volunteering at the brigade really worthwhile as it has “a particular mission that’s quite clear”.
“We might have friendly debates but when the siren goes up, it’s all hands to the pump.
He says doing the training, understanding the roles, being part of it and seeing it in action is really satisfying.
“Fire fighters are always number one in terms of who you trust around the world, and it’s because we don’t do anything but try to help people so it’s quite satisfying to know that.
We put in hours and hours of training, we take some risks but they’re controlled and managed, and we do the best we can.”
The brigade has recruits which spans generations and it, like others around the country, is always on the lookout for volunteers says Rick.
“You need new people coming through and you’re always losing people because they move away. You can’t buy out and buy them, you have to build them.
He is treated with respect by the younger crew.
“I’m old enough to be their grandfather and they have a reasonable amount of respect for the ‘I’ve been there, done that’. I don’t try to tell them how to do their job, my role is if they need something they can ask or I’m trying to stay ahead of it, and say what do we need to do to make sure we’re operationally ready.”
For more information:
Contact your local fire brigade if you think you would like to volunteer.
Or for general information check out Volunteering New Zealand.