Low numbers put strain on firefighters

Volunteer fire services in the Warkworth area are struggling to recruit new members and the shortage is putting pressure on existing crews.

Warkworth, in particular, which responds to around 300 calls annually, is down a full crew, but Leigh, Matakana and Puhoi are also desperate for new firefighters.

Warkworth chief fire officer Ian Davies (pictured) says he wouldn’t go so far as to say that the service by brigades is being affected, but it is starting to show on the current volunteers.

“Being down a crew means everybody is working harder,” he says. “A lot of the firefighters have young families and it’s placing strain on them.

“St John has only one emergency ambulance based in Warkworth, so the fire services respond to a lot of medicals when the ambulance is not available. These often occur at odd hours of the night, which can also be disruptive for families.”

Philosophically, Ian says he thinks it’s a sign of the times.

“I’ve definitely never seen the numbers as low as they are now. I think employers are reluctant to give staff time off when things are tough economically. Most of the volunteers we have are self-employed so it’s their own businesses that come second when they respond to a callout during the day.

“Although there’s plenty of young families in Warkworth, lack of local employment means that a lot of these people work outside the area so they wouldn’t be available to respond to callouts even if they wanted to.”

All brigades say that meeting daytime calls is the biggest challenge. It’s one of the reasons they are keen to recruit more women, who may be in a position to respond more easily to daytime calls.

Ian says the unpredictability of when volunteers might be needed is also a factor that deters employers.

“A medical could take an employee away from work for an hour but something major could mean the loss of the best part of a day. Additionally, we can go for days without a callout and then get three or four in one day. It’s just impossible to predict.”