Sounding the alarm for firefighters
Dining fundraiser to help towards a new vehicle for Marton’s volunteer fire brigade
Marton’s volunteer fire brigade spends countless hours giving back to the Rangitıkei District and now a local group has decided to Sound the Alarm to give it a helping hand.
Emily Rayner and Lindsey Robinson have hosted a number of balls and social events around the district and the fire brigade has provided security for them.
Rayner thought it was about time they did something for the brigade so she asked how they could help.
Marton Fire Brigade station officer Kevin Darling told her the brigade was planning to fundraise for an operational support vehicle.
He said this vehicle would allow non-operational firefighters to get to jobs where they can assist the operational firefighters with traffic management, scene lighting and various non-firefighting activities.
Last year the brigade held an information recruitment evening and Darling said this started the ball rolling for the vehicle as eight people who stepped forward became operational personnel.
He said four recruits were going through training and the others were waiting to be trained.
Rayner said sometimes not all brigade team members could fit in the appliances when called to a job and therefore they were forced to take their own vehicle which adds kilometres and fuel costs for the volunteer. It also means their vehicle can be covered in ash and fumes.
An additional operational vehicle could carry equipment for traffic control and other tasks.
“It could potentially have medical capabilities so instead of having to respond with a fire appliance to a medical call, which then puts the fire appliance out of action, we could use this vehicle, correctly manned, to be able to respond to medical accidents so it would be a big boost for the local community in terms of our capability.”
Already the year has been “extremely busy” with around 165 call outs for the Marton brigade, Darling said.
At the start of the year, they were run off their feet with vegetation fires but during the Covid-19 lockdown the number of calls dropped.
“We are 20 jobs ahead of this time last year despite Covid-19 which shows how many calls we had at the start of the year.”
With this in mind, Rayner and Robinson put their heads together and came up with a “Sound the Alarm” progressive three-course dinner. With 60 tickets available, diners will be taken in groups of 20 to three different restaurants on August 8.
Rayner said diners will get a welcome drink and an entree at the first restaurant. An alarm will then ring and they will be escorted by a fire brigade volunteer to the next restaurant and then to a third.
The night will finish at a local pub with music by a live band.
Rayner said she and Robinson have always focused on supporting retail and shopping local but, with people still travelling outside the district to dine out and with a new restaurant in Marton, they decided to give back to local restaurants.
Darling said it is awesome to have the support but the brigade does not expect the community to fundraise for the whole vehicle.
“But these events will help and the more raised, the more equipment we will put out in the vehicle.”
We are 20 jobs ahead of this time last year despite Covid-19 which shows how many calls we had at the start of the year.