FIRE BRIGADE REPORT 

Well what a big month for the Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade ! We finally got to celebrate and pay tribute to, albeit 2 years late (thanks Covid), our Fire Chief Jake Hawkins  for his 25 years of contribution to the Brigade and the wider Martinborough Community with the presentation of his Gold Star. There have been less than 10,000 of these prestigious awards since the first one in 1891. 

A wonderful night of presentations and celebrations was held at the Town Hall where tribute was paid to Jake, and we also acknowledged and paid tribute the invaluable contribution of Jake’s wife Kirsty.

We started the evening by acknowledging  the service of our members with presentation of 5 year Medals to SFF Rob Brown, QFF Matt Taylor and Mel Coleman,  RFF (former OS) Gareth McKeown, additional service bars to former Chief Bill Butzbach (45 years), OS Chris Hooson (23 years) and SO Lisa-Marie Ireland (9 years) prior to the big presentation. 

Current Brigade Members managed  to surprise Jake with a presentation of a portrait painted by our own artist and RFF Sophie Shipperbottom.

It was a great night of camaraderie and celebration shared with family, friends, Life, former and current members. Congratulations Jake.

Our  Medical First Responder training for our Brigade members is progressing well, and are still looking for more people :

• MEDICAL RESPONDERS – If you have a Nursing, Emergency Medicine,  Paramedic or similar background (you may qualify for a short familiarisation course), and want to contribute to your community, we would love to hear from you . We anticipate you would only spend 2 – 3 days a month on call along with a single night a month training. 

• FIRE FIGHTERS – If you ever thought about seeing what happens when the siren sounds and see the team rushing in, have you thought being a fire fighter might be interesting ? We would love for you to pop down on our Tuesday training nights, we are especially interested if you are available during the week days to respond.

Act now,  email our Chief –  Jacob.hawkins@fireandemergency.nz

or

Pop down an see us on a training night