My Account
Chief Fire Officer Kevin Lawton, left, presented Steve Paddison with a replica brass fire helmet.
After 25 years at the helm of Leigh Volunteer Fire Brigade – and 45 years’ service in total – Steve Paddison has stepped down as the town’s Chief Fire Officer.
Since joining the brigade in 1975, Steve has attended nearly 2000 calls of every kind, from medicals and motor accidents to fallen trees and house fires. He says that while many events have been memorable, there is one particular callout from 1987 that will stay with him, when Te Kiri Omaha marae burnt down.
“The one I’ll probably always remember is the marae fire,” he says. “We were driving down there in the dark and Laly Haddon’s mother was in the middle of the road, waving us down – she stopped the fire truck. She was staying at her daughter’s in Leigh and was on her way down to the marae – she wanted us to give her a lift. She was barefoot, too – she never wore shoes.”
Steve has seen many changes in his time with the Leigh brigade, principally the increase in the number of medical callouts in recent years and, in 2017, the formation of Fire & Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), after the amalgamation of the NZ Fire Service, the National Rural Fire Authority and rural fire districts. The move has not been an improvement for Leigh, he believes, with a frustrating increase in bureaucracy and other challenges.
“To be honest, it got to stage where it felt like I was hitting my head against a wall,” he says.
However, he is not retiring from the brigade completely and will still be an active member of the Leigh crew. Taking over Steve’s spot as Chief Fire Officer is Kevin Lawton, who steps up from his role as deputy Chief Fire Officer. As well as volunteering with the brigade for around 16 years, Kevin runs local building firms Leigh Builders and Tiny Living, and is an Olympic medallist – he won a rowing bronze for New Zealand at the 1984 Los Angeles games. Leigh station officer and brigade training officer Nick Torkington has taken up the post of deputy Chief Fire Officer.
