Fighting fires for 50 years
For 50 years they’ve doused fires, cut children from cars and pulled people from burning buildings. Two of Hamilton’s longest serving firefighters are now hanging up their helmets for a life of fishing and travel.
As Geoff Gray, 69, and Dave Gunn, 65, kick back on the couch next to the billiard table at Hamilton’s central fire station, the look in their eyes tells a story. ‘‘It gave us a benchmark and it was the goal that kept us here,’’ Gray says, reflecting on the decades of service and three different employers that have governed what’s now Fire and Emergency NZ.
The two senior station officers have spent the last 24 years together battling blazes like the Te Rapa dairy factory fire and the Tamahere Coolstore explosion that claimed their mate’s life, yet their journeys began in different ways.
Gunn began his firefighting career in Kawerau in 1967. His old man was a firefighter and he used to watch him train and attend competitions. On his 14th birthday, he became a volunteer.
At 15, he was jumping out school windows to attend fires.
‘‘I was in a maths exam one day and the siren went up. I was looking out the window and the siren went again. I still hadn’t seen the truck go past, so I dived out the window. The teacher chased me across the rugby paddock but couldn’t catch me. I got to the station and was on the first truck to the fire.’’
From Kawerau, Gunn headed to Rotorua, where he lived at the station as an auxilliary fireman while completing a sheet metal apprenticeship. In 1974 he moved to Tauranga for a permanent paid firefighting role. Stints in Kawerau, Gisborne and Timaru followed before Gunn became a station officer in Hamilton in 1994. He’ll never forget the blaze at the Empire Hotel in Frankton that claimed six lives.
The senior station officer arrived to see an 18-year-old Bret Jones jump from the third floor. He hit his head on a railway sleeper and died.
That blaze haunted Gunn for years, but talking with family and friends helps you get over it, he says. ‘‘You sit down and talk, have a few beers. Now we try and talk to the newer ones, get them to let it out, as there is depression in the fire service.’’
Geoff Gray’s firefighting career started closer to home.
Mesmerised by the fire engines in the windows along Oriental Parade, Gray’s family farming took him to Te Awamutu, where he joined as a volunteer in 1968.
The first flames he ever saw were erupting from a local chicken house.
‘‘We turned up there and the chief yelled ‘get the first aid’. I thought someone was burnt so I ran to get the first aid kit. Turns out it was the hose reel – that was the first aid,’’ he laughed.
Gray continued training and 10 years later moved to career staff in Hamilton, where he’s spent more than 40 years serving the community and running a national drivers’ programme.
You walk away from every fire with a different perspective, he says. One of the toughest to attend was the Tamahere Coolstore explosion that killed firefighter Derek Lovell.
‘‘That was one of the hardest, that caused the most grief for the brigade, and still does. We lost a mate there.’’
Firefighters put on a tough face, Gray says, but it does affect them. Every death is relatable.
‘‘Looking after yourself is the main thing and they’re really addressing that now.’’
But amid the tragedy are the saves. Like when Gray’s crew pulled a Hamilton mother out of her Karen Cres home and revived her.
The pair’s professionalism, knowledge and firefighting skills will be missed, Waikato’s Fire Area Commander Darryl Papesch said.
‘‘They have led their crews well and been exceptional on the fire ground. They’re both an absolute pleasure to work with, and they’ll be missed as both firefighting officers and mates.’’