AHIPARA WOMEN’S FIRE BRIGADE

View over Ahipara farmland from the top of Whangatauatia. Nine, predominantly Māori women, fire fighters of the Ahipara Women’s Fire Brigade pose for the camera. An interesting short informational film showing how the Ahipara Women’s Volunteer Fire Brigade work.

This item was created for the television series ‘Town and Around’ and reported by Keith Bracey for NZBC.

The women are hanging out washing (Hinemoa Te Paa), splitting wood (Peggy Adams), ironing (Harriet Pure), holding children (Aggie Rakich) gardening (Linda Curle) other gardener [Lena Kovacivich], changing the wheel on a car, vacuuming [Mary Hanlon] and drying dishes [Api King]. A farm wife, (Joyce Hunt) is alerted to a burning rubbish pile in an open field and rushes to call the fire brigade. The fire was set and staged as a training exercise for the brigade on Joyce and her husband Stan’s farm.

Hearing the klaxon siren fired up by Fire Chief Garth Beatson, the women leave their domestic duties and make their way to the fire station. Men board their vehicles (a Land Rover, trailer and a flatbed truck pulling the pump. Women laying the hoses and hosing the fire down. Onlookers watch the proceedings. Fire is extinguished.

The women in this film have been identified by the Ahipara/Kaitaia community.

The fire was set as a training exercise and recorded on film.