Fire Brigade report

Chief Fire Officer Bill Butzbach passing the reins onto new Chief, Jake Hawkins.

The Brigade held its 112th Annual General Meeting last week with Chief Fire Officer  Bill Butzbach presenting his final report prior to stepping down as CFO and passing the reins onto our new Chief, Jake Hawkins, Bill acknowledged the huge commitment Jake has made to attend numerous courses over the past 18 months to enable him to take over. A formal presentation was made of the Rank of CFO to Jake by Bill.

The CFO Report included the following call statistics for the Brigade in the financial year (1 July- 30 June) and made up of 32 Fire related calls, 24 Medical and Rescue calls, 14 calls that included Hazardous , public assistance, false alarms and assisting other brigades, we note out medical calls are down, hopefully this is a reflection of a healthy community. Remember we are here to help for more than fires.

Another highly anticipated Award at our AGM is the Charlie Johns Shield for most attendances, with this years reciepient being Firefighter Emily Abbot, well done Emily.

Many in the community would have heard our siren go off several times for a structure fire last week, this call came in just as our volunteers were returning from their day jobs and the siren was repeated to get maximum numbers for what became a 2nd alarm fire. We were assisted by both Featherston and Masterton brigades along with support from the Regional Breathing Apparatus unit from the Hutt Valley. 

The quick actions of the brigade whilst unfortunately not being able to save the commercial building prevented the fire from spreading to adjoining houses.  We would like to thank those bystanders from the community who offered their assistance to the first arriving fire crews, and  if this motivated or inspired you then come on down and see us to talk about how you can contribute to this town’s vital community  service.