Apart from attending to fire calls around the island, the Puaikura Volunteer Fire Brigade attended a crash call over the weekend and is looking forward to improving their response time with the new station.

Puaikura Volunteer Fire Brigade has attended to about 10 emergency calls this year that are mostly fires. The team attends to an average 30 to 40 emergency calls per year.

And in the weekend they attended a crash call in Tupapa where they got to use their new emergency lighting, traffic wands and first aid kit.

Chief fire officer, Jason Moorfield said that on Saturday night an accident occurred right outside a brigade member’s house, who had phoned them directly to give him a hand with the first aid.

Moorfield said ambulance and police also got there. 

Police confirmed that a road incident marred the weekend’s driving when a motorcyclist crashed his bike near Club Raro in Tupapa, on Saturday night.

Police spokesperson Trevor Pitt said police were called about the crash at 7.18pm, which was also rendered assistance from the Puaikura Volunteer Fire Brigade.

The male driver sustained serious foot injuries and required medical attention at the hospital, where Police also sought a blood specimen for analysis, he added.

The Puaikura Brigade team received their new first response vehicle and first aid equipment in December last year through a Japanese Grassroots Fund of $222,000.

Moorfield said the vehicle itself was about $60,000, the portable lighting units were about $3500 each and the little traffic ones that everybody loves were around $35.

The Puaikura Volunteer Fire Brigade attended a crash call over the weekend. SUPPLIED / 24042902 / 24042903 / 24042904

Other equipment includes resuscitation training equipment, portable lifting, a ground monitor, new 70mm and 45mm hose and hose washer, traffic wands and hooligan tools.

Moorfield said this equipment is amazing and they no longer need to use personal torches.

“We’re still finishing off the project, there’s an extension on to the fire station so that we can house two of our fire appliances at the station. Because at the moment we’ve only got one there and one is parked at T&M Heathers contracting yard. Having both vehicles in one spot will help with our response times.”

The renovations would allow the station to become more of a training and response hub in the event of disasters or emergencies.

Moorfield said so far, they have used their new gear to attend to fire calls.

He added they also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Te Marae Ora (TMO) Ministry of Health a few years back.

“We’ve just been working with them to try and help out where we can.”

The Puaikura Volunteer Fire Brigade has about 18 active firefighters – 12 are first responder trained and six to seven support members.

Moorfield acknowledged the support of the local community in Puaikura.

“We’ve got some great supporters of the brigade, and they help us keep it all working.”