Fire brigade plans even bigger bangs
Things are planned to go off with a bigger bang at this year’s Mangaweka Volunteer Fire Brigade’s fireworks fundraiser.
For the brigade is spending more money on more pyrotechnics this year for the display planned at the McIntyre Reserve at Ohingaiti on October 27, which means it will run for a longer time.
It will be the third time the brigade has run the display, which will be put on by the Kairanga Lions Club.
It is held in Ohingaiti because Mangaweka doesn’t have such a suitable outdoors space and there are rules around the proximity of fireworks to the likes of forestry and animals.
Already, running the display has helped buy the brigade an 11,000 litre ex-Fonterra milk tanker for carting water to fires.,
Brigade secretary-treasurer Cecily Evans recalls the tanker played a vital part in fighting the most "dangerous" fire the brigade had attended in years when a blaze erupted at the Mt Stewart reserve in Taihape.
She said the tanker was able to feed helicopters that played a big part in quelling the fire, which destroyed bush but not any of the many houses in the vicinity.
Evans said two new features of this year’s fireworks show would be a display by the army and a performance from the Massey University fire circus, a student club. "That’ll be very exciting," she said.
She said the display had proved popular with the public since the brigade took over running it.
The 12-strong brigade was always looking for extra money over and above what it received for operational expenses so it could support the community, she said. "There’s always something."
Hence its involvement in the fireworks display.
The brigade celebrated 100 years in 2013 and a year later its chief, Rex Noble, was awarded a double gold star for 50 years of service and the QSM.
The fireworks display is just one of several events involving Mangaweka residents in the leadup to Christmas.
Also scheduled are a book fair on November 4 along with the annual Christmas Fayre in the village hall on the same day.
Then there is the Fakes and Forgeries exhibition, held every two years, which opens on November 4 in the Mangaweka "Yellow Church" Gallery, run by Richard Aslett.