The New Zealand Fire Service Magazine

16 Issue No. 50
Incidents Fun & Games
When TVNZ’s Wheel of Fortune production company went searching for ‘celebrities’ to front a week-long
series of the game show, they needed people with the type of pulling power that would guarantee increased
viewership. So obviously they came knocking on the Fire Service door and after some easy negotiations over
what we needed to get from the opportunity, we signed the deal and entered into the fun.
If you don’t know the Wheel of Fortune show, contestants
spin a wheel that is made up of cash, prize and bankrupt
segments. If their spin lands on a cash amount or a prize,
they get the right to request a consonant to solve a word
puzzle. If they get a consonant that is part of the puzzle, they
can spin again. If they land on bankrupt, they get nothing.
Wheel of Fortune attracts around 500,000 New Zealand
viewers each week day so a big part of the Fire Service getting
involved was the opportunity to expose a big audience
to important fire safety messages as the word puzzles.
The firefighters would also be able to expand on why fire
safety was so important with show host, Jason Gunn.
Another important aspect of our involvement was that each
of the 12 firefighters had one of three nominated charities
they were playing for to raise money and awareness. The
Child Cancer Foundation, The National Burn Centre, and
The NZ Breast Cancer Foundation were understandably
very enthusiastic to be involved and very thankful.
Rob Holah, who has taken over the NZ Firefighter
Calendar reins from Les Presling, was tasked with finding
past and present calendar models to agree to be part of
the show when it was filmed in Auckland two weeks ago.
Stepping up to the mark were Auckland firefighters
Jason Orchard, Josh Darby, Liam Devoy, Vili Vaea,
Josh Harrison, Cameron Mckecknie, Doug Kinsella and
Jeremy Fraser. Representing Wellington were Bret Burrows
and John Holah. Brendon Dunn came up from Greerton
and Te Awamutu Volunteer Fire Brigade member,
Corey Neilson, made up the team.
On the filming day, initial nerves were soon put to rest
with Jason Gunn’s stories and jokes keeping everyone
social and at ease. Having promo shots taken with Greer
Robson was also a thrill for many. In the end, a very
successful filming with only a couple of minor bloopers
and over $55,000 worth of cash and prizes donated to
the three charities.