PAGE 10 Wednesday <strong>August</strong> <strong>14</strong> <strong>2019</strong> BAY HARBOUR Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Your Local Views Bid to get 4WD response vehicle for brigade Diamond <strong>Harbour</strong> Volunteer Fire Brigade chief officer Bob Palmer writes about the highly trained crew and the different types of callouts it responds to IT IS 3AM, it is dark, there is light rain and the wind is picking up. It’s cold. The silence of the sleeping community is broken suddenly by the sounds two old air raid sirens, one at each end of the village. In the houses of 20 local men and women, emergency pagers and text alerts also sound. These men and women receive very basic details of the reason they have been woken to respond to an emergency in this small piece of paradise. They quickly dress and either run, cycle or drive to the local fire station to join their team. Some of the “now awake” residents will experience a quick AS I SAID in my last column, we’ve travelled to Italy so Vittoria can meet the family. And what a journey it’s been. Before we even left, Vittoria caused her parents a heap of stress with her first ambulance trip to the emergency department, starting on a course of antibiotics for pneumonia, setting us back a day on doctor’s orders. It sounds bad, and it wasn’t ideal, but it was all okay apart from unsettling our sleep patterns. So we were lucky, our pre-dawn flight on Saturday went swimmingly. Vittoria was happy to nap, draw or watch cartoons all the way to Brisbane where we stayed a night with my sister-in-law Sarah. The only niggle was that she leaked on me because her nappy was askew but, like for most parents I think, that’s a non-event. It looked like either the antibiotics or time were working a treat flurry of emotions from initial annoyance to having been woken, then quickly followed by concerned thoughts about who is in trouble and what has happened. Is it a fire, has someone had a heart attack, have trees blown over onto power lines causing fire and power outage, has the community received an upgraded warning of tsunami, or has some tired driver driven off the road and crashed? Diamond <strong>Harbour</strong> has a magnificent bunch of volunteer firefighters who are highly trained, multi-skilled and committed to providing the very best support in all sorts of emergencies to this community – their people. Their families sit at home and worry about their firefighting partner, or family members and on Vittoria, so we were quietly confident going into the <strong>14</strong>-hour leg to Dubai on Sunday night. And again, it went pretty good. Fourteen uneventful hours. Arriving in Dubai we were all tired, dishevelled, probably smelly and definitely over trying to sleep in an aircraft seat with a fidgety toddler. Between us and relaxation, were only four hours in an airport and a six-hour flight. Easy right? Spoiler alert – no. Our luck ran out 20 minutes before boarding started for our flight to Venice when Vittoria vomited all over the floor in the middle of a packed terminal. And a little CAREGIVERS Earn £££ to fund your travels Use your nursing/caregiving background in a flexible work situation of short-term assignments, caring for UK clients in their own home. • Free induction training and paid ongoing training • Free lodging in our Oxford Aunts dedicated house whilst training • Earn up to £7896 for 12 weeks work • Holiday pay and good time off • Experience English life in city or countryside locations: Oxford, the Home Counties and more To be eligible to work for us in the UK you must have one of the following: • Valid British or EU passport • Youth Mobility Visa for commonwealth citizens aged 30 or under • Ancestry Visa by virtue of having a UK grandparent TO APPLY: www.oxfordaunts.co.uk/carer-application For more information contact: + 44 1865 791017 enquiries@oxfordaunts.co.uk OFF-ROADER: The Diamond <strong>Harbour</strong> Volunteer Fire Brigade is fundraising for a four-wheel-drive response vehicle similar to the one used by the Rakaia brigade. don’t go back to sleep themselves until they have returned home safe. The brigade protects a significant area of the peninsula from Gebbies Valley to Pigeon <strong>Bay</strong> and further afield. They train every Tuesday night and many weekends developing their firefighting skills and being assessed to maintain their authority to perform a multitude of medical interventions as part of their partnership with St John. There are more than 640 Highs and lows of travelling overseas VITTORIA & Matt on my shirt and shoes. Honestly, what’s the protocol for that? I just floundered in surprise for a bit until Laura went into nurse mode and sent me off to clean Vittoria up while she “dealt with it” in the splash zone. Once we were as “fresh” as possible and a suddenly exhausted toddler crying in my arms, we made our way to the gate where we were told we could get Vittoria checked up for free at the airport clinic and wouldn’t miss our flight. However, once the “ambulance” arrives (literally a push trolley) we were told that a full check at volunteer fire brigades in New Zealand and around 49 are trained and equipped for “medical first response”, which in our brigade accounts for about 60 per cent of our “calls for service.” Even delivering babies is in our repertoire. They say variety is the spice of life, so it is in the brigade, we have been to fires caused by swans flying into high voltage cables at night, burning possums falling into and setting alight to hedges, cats up trees, sheep in the clinic might make us miss our flight – great. With all the vitals coming back healthy, and Vittoria totally out to it asleep, I was offered a difficult choice; do further checks and miss the flight or sign a waiver saying “refused treatment” and that if it gets worse it’s all on you. Although I was confident to sign away and just get to the flight so we could be done with it, I felt terrible anyway. So for three long and stressful hours of the last flight we thought of all the worst things it could be – dehydration, gastro, some sort of never-wake-up disease. And what does Vittoria do when she finally wakes up? Sits up, laughs and becomes the flight staff’s darling by running laps around the plane with a huge grin on her face for the duration of the flight. Anyway, we’re in Italy now and ready for family time. style noun elegance and sophistication. synonyms: flair, grace, poise, polish, suaveness, urbanity, chic, finesse, taste, class, comfort, luxury, affluence, wealth, opulence, lavishness. MAGAZINE STYLE.KIWI CONFIDENT: In Dubai, unaware of what was coming next. Discover Christchurch’s best pet accommodation • Daycare - all breeds • Long stay/short stay Call now to book in your fur baby, inspections welcome anytime! holes in the ground, roofs blown off, chimneys toppled by quakes and homes flooded by burst water pipes. All these jobs use all the skills of our team. Many readers will be aware our brigade has identified a significant gap in our response around our need to purchase a four-wheel-drive response vehicle to get us quickly and safely to emergencies in difficult to reach locations. Our rural areas cause us concern as our existing response vehicles, the fire medical vehicle and fire appliance are not able to go “off-road.” We have, with the help of major supporters, including James and Laura at On the Spot, so far raised nearly $45,000 towards a new vehicle. We have a quite bit more to raise so any help would be appreciated, (fundraising account 01-0822-0138244-050). We can then purchase a purpose-built vehicle we and our community can be proud of. •Former <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News journalist Matt Salmons has become a stay-at-home dad. We follow his journey weekly. ALAMEDA KENNELS & CATTERY 271 Dyers Road | Ph 384 1297 www.alameda.nz
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