Fire chief at fire - at his house
A veteran fire chief has described the ‘‘totally different feeling’’ of battling a fire at the house where he raised his three children.
Paul Harris has been chief fire officer at North Canterbury’s Waipara Volunteer Fire Brigade for the past 20 years.
In two weeks, he will mark 43 years with the brigade.
The 59-year-old has fought plenty of house fires but last Friday was different. He was in Rangiora with his wife, Fiona, when a message came through on his pager.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand was called at 3.10pm after the principal of Waipara School spotted smoke. It was coming from a house 400 metres from the school.
Harris owned the house. Not long after his pager pinged, his phone started ringing as people called to tell him ‘‘your house is on fire – did you know?’’
Harris and his wife rushed back to Waipara.
By 3.40pm, he was standing in front of the property he bought in 1982 – his first house – and watching the smoke billowing skywards.
Fire crews from Waipara, Amberley and Waikari had ‘‘knocked back’’ much of the flames by then but the house was ‘‘extensively damaged’’ and would need to be demolished.
‘‘It’s hard to describe, going to something you’ve lived in.
‘‘I’ve been to so many house fires in my firefighting career but when you go to your own house it’s a totally different feeling,’’ he said.
‘‘But I had to get on with my job as a firefighter as well.’’
Harris and his family moved out of the property in 2002, but kept the house as a rental. It was tenanted at the time of the fire, which started in one of the bedrooms.
Seeing a fire hit his own property gave him a fresh appreciation for volunteers’ efforts.
‘‘Even though I’ve been a firefighter for a long time, when it’s your house you think: oh, these people have given up their time,’’ he said.
His daughter, Rachel Payne, said it was the first time she had seen her father in action as a firefighter.
While it was ‘‘very sad’’ she was more concerned for the tenants who ‘‘lost everything before Christmas’’.
Harris had insurance and had filed a claim. The cause of the fire was accidental, he said.
''When you go to your own house it's a totally different feeling.'' Waipara Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Paul Harris