Volunteer Fire Fighters Speech
by Nikki Wasson, aged 10
Beep, beep, beep….
An all too familiar sound in our house. There goes my Dad… Yep, you’ve probably guessed it; my speech today is on Volunteer Fire Fighters. I am Nikki and I would like to tell you about some of the things that make a Volunteer Fire Fighter so special.
Volunteer Fire Fighters put in many hours of their own time to provide a service for rural communities. Unlike the paid fire fighters these guys and gals do it for love. Working as a Volunteer Fire Fighter in a small community like ours can be very hard sometimes. Ninety per cent of the calls they attend, somebody within the brigade knows the victim they are helping. In the case of a fatal accident this can make it very hard for them to continue their job. But they just have to carry on, be strong and deal with the grief later. Imagine how hard that would be!
My Dad has been on the Brigade for several years now. I don’t know how many times we have been getting ready to go out, only to see our car go screaming out the drive without us. We’ve learnt to just carry on without him – he normally tracks us down somewhere.
Being a Volunteer Fire Fighter involves many hours of training. Once a week Dad goes off to Monday night practice. He also goes away on lots of weekend courses, as they always want to update their skills. All this is done in their own time without getting paid, to help people like you and me.
Within New Zealand there are around 11,000 Volunteer Fire Fighters so you can just imagine how many other family lives are disrupted. Included in this 11,000 there are approximately 440 female fire fighters. See, you boys, we really do have the strength to match you.
Up until June 2001, the NZ Fire Service attended 64, 993 incidents. This is made up of car accidents, fires and chemical emergencies. On average the Kerikeri Brigade attends approx 130 calls a year.
Today I have brought along a couple of things to show you that Kerikeri Brigade has kindly let me borrow. These items have been in house fires that they have attended.
This iron was left on and started a fire, as did this pot. Imagine how you would feel if this truck was one of your toys – " SO COME ON GUYS, GET FIRE-WISE" – I would hate my Dad to have to come to you one day.
