Milton Fire Brigade Chief, Robbie Phillips, was the guest speaker at changeover night. He thanked the Rotary Club for a donation of $1500 made last month. The Milton Fire Brigade is 118 years old and Robbie gave us an interesting run down of the history of the brigade in Milton.
Early appliances were a brand new 1955 S Bedford, which has been restored and bought back by the fire brigade, and a TK Bedford - an open back truck. In 1974, the Fire Board built a new Fire Station in Milton at a cost of $80k. There were 50-60 calls per year, mostly fires. All the members were male and generally within walking distance of the station.
Late in the 70s more car accidents were occurring and specialist equipment such as a rescue bag, can opener and sledge hammers had to be purchased. Rotary and Lions later helped with the funding of a jaws for life and other specialist equipment.
The Milton Fire Brigade station was upgraded 4 to 5 years ago. There are now four large electric doors and heating is kept on to dry the uniforms (not like the old days!). There are two new appliances which can carry 2000L of water and a large amount of Class A foam.
The rescue equipment the brigade now carry is as good as any brigade in New Zealand. The training for firefighters is now much more intense and specialised than previously.
In Milton there are 24 members and they now cover 120 calls per year, 20% of which are fire related, 35% accidents, 10 % medical and the rest false alarms. Sometimes the brigade is very short on crew numbers due to a combination of shift work and members working out of town. The fire brigade is an essential service and often during Covid-19 there were only 5 members available.
Robbie expressed his thanks to the local employers for allowing their employees to leave when called on for an emergency.
Jenny Scott gave a vote of thanks to Robbie for sharing the information with us and for what he does for our community.