‘Rapt’ Heretaunga Volunteer Fire Brigade gets new truck

It’s a type of recognition, it’s Fire and Emergency NZ recognising us saying ‘hey you guys have done well, as a token of our appreciation here’s a new truck’. Brigade Controller Hamish Hanara

The volunteer firefighters at the Heretaunga Volunteer Fire Brigade are “rapt” to now be driving around a new truck for the first time in 15 years.

The brigade on Friday received a new rural fire truck.

Deputy Principal Rural Fire Officer Gordon Foster said they were vegetation fire specialists, and the new rural fire truck, with capacity for 1000 more litres of water, will make a difference.

Other than the obvious difference that the truck is yellow, it is also a lot higher off the ground, and a fourwheel drive suitable for off road jobs, he said.

Foster said the last new truck they had was when he was a volunteer for the brigade and the volunteers are “rapt as they would be”.

Brigade Controller Hamish Hanara said as one of the busier rural brigades, the truck was badly needed.

“It means that all the hard work that everyone puts in behind the scenes volunteering it sort of rewards them as a brigade, as a group, as a family, because that’s what we are, one big family group.

“It’s a type of recognition, it’s Fire and Emergency NZ recognising us saying ‘hey you guys have done well, as a token of our appreciation here’s a new truck’.

“It’s like everything, you just keep grinding and eventually you get the rewards you deserve.”

The brigade, co-located at the Hastings Fire Station, has about 20 volunteers, trains twice a month and has an average of about 30 callouts a year.

The old truck and new truck were blessed by Rev Wayne Toleafoa on Friday and the truck was put into service.

Hanara said the blessing was important to Ma¯ori culture, “we don’t like to send things away unblessed, it just sets a bad precedent”.

In the week prior the volunteers spent time getting used to the new truck.

It hasn’t yet been out on a job, as at Monday afternoon, but Hanara said the volunteers are “itching to go on it”.

Photo / Supplied Heretaunga Volunteer Brigade Controller Hamish Hanara accepting the keys of the new appliance on Friday.