Former Arrowtown fire chief marks 50 years
Arrowtown firefighter Jim Shaw has always been a man with a plan. As a teenager at school in Dunedin he returned to Arrowtown to complete a mechanic’s apprenticeship with the goal of working in his father’s garage and transport business.
He describes the 9000-hour correspondence course as ‘‘hard yards’’ but committed to complete it before succumbing to pressure to join the local fire brigade.
That was on June 6, 1967, when he was 20 years old.
A couple of years later, Charlie Henderson stepped down as chief, and with no obvious successor, the seniors were making decisions in the background, unbeknown to young Shaw.
‘‘Suddenly I was bulldozed into the job.’’
He was only 22 and, unofficially, he became New Zealand’s youngest fire chief. If that is the case (records were not kept in those days), the record still stands.
This weekend he will mark another milestone. About 150 colleagues, friends and officials will come together to celebrate his 50 years of volunteer service with the awarding of a double gold star.
Of those years, all served with the Arrowtown fire brigade, 26 were spent as the chief, but it was not easy at the beginning.
Queenstown brigade stalwart Bob Crosbie served his first 11 years in Arrowtown under Shaw, he said.
‘‘He was very young and he had a lot to learn.
‘‘He was thrown in the deep end and had to learn to swim.
‘‘He did his best and sometimes it was good but of course there was always differences of opinions with others,’’ he said.
Crosbie recalls that at the time Arrowtown was a ‘‘sleepy hollow’’ with about 12-14 calls a year – mostly grass or structure fires.
With Shaw at the helm, the brigade was always prepared, he said.
Crosbie described him as ‘‘meticulous’’ in his organisation and preparation.
Another colleague and a later chief of the Arrowtown brigade, Garry Hall, used the words ‘‘pedantic’’ and ‘‘thorough’’.
‘‘As soon as there’s a little problem he rings [head office in] Dunedin and researches all the information and annoys the hell out of them till it’s sorted.’’
Shaw was chief until 1995, when he decided to remain as a senior firefighter, preferring to drive the truck than sit in the officer’s seat.
‘‘Then I started enjoying th- ings,’’ Shaw quipped.
He is still renowned for his maintenance of the fire trucks, but also for his commitment to the brigade.
He recalls many major incidents during his time, including probably the biggest fire Arrowtown has attended when the almost new Coronet Peak base building burned down in 1986.
The ski field at the time was no man’s land in terms of firefighting boundaries as the Queenstown and Arrowtown zones met at the Coronet Peak turnoff on Malaghan Rd.
It became a joint effort – the toughest part getting to the fire on the shingle road covered in snow and ice in minus16 degrees Celsius.
Only one vehicle could get there – a jeep belonging to the Queenstown brigade – but eventually a pump vehicle with chains was towed up: ‘‘and here was the building burning end to end,’’ he said.
With no easily accessible water supply and a portable pump carried by a snow cat up the mountain, all the fire brigade could do was prevent it getting into neighbouring sheds and storage rooms.
The fire, which started in the kitchen and was later ruled accidental, destroyed the two top storeys of the building.
Shaw still marvels that the fire happened on a Wednesday night and the skifield opened for business again on Saturday.
He also chuckles when he recalls the White Star Hotel fire in Queenstown in 1970.
The hotel, which sat on the land that is now the Village Green, went up in a massive blaze and Shaw, who just happened to be in Queenstown that day, was pulled in to help with the effort.
The law at the time dictated that pubs could not close for more than 24 hours so as the fire was being put out at one end of the building, the bar was still serving at the other end.
Other memorable fires during his tenure included the Speargrass Flat lodge fire in 2006, which destroyed the 10-room lodge, an electrical fire that destroyed the new Millbrook Spa in 2004, and Russell Coutts’ house fire on the Crown Terrace in 2009.
These days, when the brigade attends up to 170 calls a year, many of which are motor vehicle crashes and medical, it can be harrowing for volunteers but Shaw has always viewed it as a job, albeit unpaid.
‘‘We’re turned out to it and we do whatever we have to do. You go home and get on with life. I’m lucky I’ve never had a carry-over of incidents. Some people aren’t like that.’’
He always thought it important though that volunteer brigade members socialised and has been heavily involved in competition teams and volunteering to help the community in other ways.
He had a brush with fame when a television network followed Arrowtown firefighters around as they cleared snow from driveways during a particularly cold winter, and this year found himself meeting with Prime Minister Bill English and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and their wives.
Many remember the time in 2000 he bet then Chief Richard Jackson $50 that he could power a boat with a portable pump on Lake Hayes. Jackson was so confident he would win he invited local media but ended up crying foul after his public loss and having to hand over the cash.
Shaw feels proud to hit 50 years and is looking forward to Saturday night’s knees up, which will be attended by his three children and partner Thalia Dunn. And he plans to continue with the brigade as long as he continues to enjoy it while running his property maintenance business.
‘‘But I’m one of those sorts of people – a job is a job,’’ he says.