Burning history kept alive

Dedication to the job, whether it's volunteering your time to keep others safe or completing a task, is second nature for one man in Woodville as the town's volunteer fire brigade celebrates 125 years. Emma Goodwin reports.

He leads them through a gateway behind a shed that has seen better days. There's a twinkle in his eyes that comes only when someone is about to reveal a secret.

The two followers dip their heads to avoid the low-slung branches of a tree and pick their way through the tussocky grass, carefully avoiding evidence left behind that sheep, which are now looking warily at the visitors from the paddock next door, have been here.

A chicken pecks her way through the greenery and is unperturbed by the visitors as she forages around their feet, interested in the insects that their footsteps have disturbed.

And there she is, basking in the dappled sunlight that filters through the leaves and branches, which softly caresses her curves and dances over her auburn sheen – a 1919 Dodge fire engine, aptly named, whether by design or not, by the badge on the front of her grille. Old Reliable.

While she may not be as old as the Woodville Volunteer Fire Brigade, she is a testimony to the diligence of the people who give their time to keep us safe from fire.

The brigade has dedicated 125 years to protecting its community, and station office Kevin McIntyre – lover of history, picture framer and restorer of vintage vehicles – has spent the past three years gathering together its history for a book.

Answering the Call has been a labour of love for Mr McIntyre and wife Joan – he for his love of the service, she for the love of her husband and history.

"We are both fascinated by local history, and there was supposed to be a centennial book which didn't happen, so when the 125th anniversary came around, it seemed appropriate that we should pull this together."

Mr McIntyre was involved in the 1975 Woodville centenary commemorations, so he knew what to expect, but there was a lot more work involved in this project due to a lack of background information on the brigade.

"There were minutes of the meetings but there was very little detail involved in them. There were also no attendance records, letters or accounts."

There was also little documentation about the actions of the brigade.

It took a fair amount of detective work to pull the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together, with Mrs McIntyre spending many hours trawling through archives in Wellington, reading past copies of the Woodville Examiner to find the news stories that gave the information skeleton some flesh.

"Once we had dates of when things happened, such as acknowledgment of donations or events such as fundraising balls in the minutes, we could go back and find the relevant pieces of information in the paper," says Mrs McIntyre.

She says that, thankfully, as time went on and the newspaper copies became more recent, the means of being able to download the information became easier.

"Then we could just plug our data card in and download things to then bring back home and look at."

When the brigade was established, volunteer firefighters had to pay a shilling a month to be a volunteer.

The fires of 1884 from Eketahuna to Norsewood sparked the need for the brigade.

The threat of fire was always present, due to the amount of bush in the area that was being cleared and burned.

"There was no town water at the time, and the team would have to have been fighting any fires with shovels and buckets."

Mr McIntyre joined the brigade in 1980. A local man, born and bred in Woodville, he has travelled away from the town but eventually came back after a two-year stint in Sydney.

"We actually couldn't find somewhere small enough after that," laughs Mrs McIntyre, who is a Dannevirke girl.

While finding written information was difficult, finding confirmation of incidents was made harder by the fact that many of the older volunteers had passed on.

"It would have been easier if we had done the book for the centenary, as more of the lads would have been around to pass on stories."

Thankfully, though, there were some who had joined in the 1950s and were still around to tell some tales, but it was hard to garner information from before that time.

"Some people also don't like to admit they've been around that long," chuckles Mr McIntyre. "They'd tell you to go and ask someone else who had been around longer, and you'd have to say diplomatically that there isn't anyone."

While there was a lot of hearsay information, none of it could be used without concrete proof of the details of an event.

One of the events that will be prominent in many minds is the July 7, 1993 tragedy of station officer and driver John Agnew's death.

The brigade was responding to a call and the fire engine lost traction on the road, rolled and ended up in a creek.

The horrific details of that night are related in Mr McIntyre's words, which paint a stark first-hand picture.

Another event is Ansett flight 703, when a Dash 8 aircraft ploughed into the Tararua Ranges around Hall Block Rd.

Ninety minutes of intense activity involved in the search for and rescue of passengers left a lasting impression in the firefighters' memories.

The book will be launched on March 15, and 200 copies are being printed, with each copy retailing for $55.

"People have been able to check out an advance copy at the library, and then we have taken orders from that."

"Of course, it's a limited market, but it is a fascinating history of the service."

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy of Answering the Call should contact Kevin or Joan McIntyre, phone 063765690 or email nj.mcintyre@xtra.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News