Fire chief Stephen Milne
Winton fire chief Stephen Milne has been a volunteer firefighter for the past 18 years. About two weeks ago he was made fire chief of the Winton station. Milne’s day job is contract manager for South Roads. On average the Winton fire station attends 70-80 callouts a year.
Q: Why did you decide to join the fire service?
A: I joined the fire service to help the community, to help out and get involved. Q: Tell us about your station. A: We’ve got 30-odd members here at the moment. We did have 36, but a few have left.
The chief’s recently retired after 33 years. We’ve got a good mix of people.
We’ve got four females at the moment which is pretty good. There’s a good mix of [day] jobs about the place, which can be a downer, because it gets us out of the town during the day.
There’s probably only six guaranteed to be about during the day which be a problem. Q: The best part of the job? A: The best part of the job is probably at the end of a call when you’ve done something to help someone, whether it be fire, medical or motor vehicle accident.
Q: Are there any specific challenges in your patch?
A: The main challenge is everyone working out of the town. When I first joined, it was a battle to get on the truck during the day.
Nowadays there’s plenty of time to get on the truck. We’ve got a few guys with some gear that can respond from work if required.
Q: Tell us about your involvement with the community.
A: We had the station open for people to come and have a browse through.
Kids can get on the fire engine and have a look around and sit in the drivers seat and so on.
Last year we did a rescue from the rooms above the bank and we had a smoke machine going which a lot of people thought was the real thing.
We’ve got good support from the community.
Q: Is there one day on the job that was particularly memorable for you?
A: Probably the most memorable moment, unfortunately, is the fatalities. You never forget your first one. Unfortunately for me it was a double one and we were called to cut the deceased out of the car.
We had a pretty green crew as well, so it was a bit of a challenge but we got there in the end.
Once you get the first one out of the way you seem to grow each time.
Q: What happens after an event like that?
A: After a major incident we’ll have a debrief with everyone involved and other agencies if they’re involved, which they normally are.
But if it’s a major one, we’ll all get together and sit down and have a yarn about it. Straight after the call if necessary we’ll go and have a beer or a cup of tea and just yarn about it.
The chief, deputy and officers, on the call at that time, always follow up with everyone and make sure they’re okay.
The Southland Times and the New Zealand Fire Service have teamed up this year to promote fire safety as winter has arrived.
As part of the campaign we are also profiling some of our many fire brigades throughout the south.