Tamahere survivor back fighting major fire

DONNA WALSH/Waikato Times

FRONT LINE: Firefighter David Beanland, foreground, and a colleague at the Tristram Marine fire yesterday.

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A firefighter critically injured in the 2008 Tamahere Icepak coolstore blaze was back on the front line yesterday tackling Hamilton's biggest fire since that fatal day.

David Beanland was one of 60 firefighters called in to help tackle a fire at Tristram Marine in Te Rapa yesterday.

Mr Beanland was one of seven firefighters injured in the Tamahere blaze which killed Senior Station Officer Derek Lovell on April 5.

His face and hands bore the brunt of that explosion which left him seriously burned.

He was discharged from Waikato Hospital after six weeks, to be cared for by a district nurse and his wife Dianne in their Rototuna home.

He returned to duty around the middle of last year.

Mr Beanland previously told the Waikato Times it took some time to come to terms with his injuries.

"I've got a whole new appreciation for people who actually have disabilities that they can't get operated on and get rid of. I became very self-conscious about going out in public," he told the Times last year.

Despite those injuries he never once thought of giving up the job and was always anxious to get back to work.Waikato District Fire Commander Roy Breeze this morning did not want to talk about the memories yesterday's fire might have brought back for Mr Beanland or others involved in the Tamahere blaze.

Instead he wanted to concentrate on the job at hand – working to find out what caused the fire at Tristram Marine.

- © Fairfax NZ News