Graeme has completed 50 years of fire service

Graeme Phillips’ dedication to duty with the Pātea Volunteer Fire Department saw him once disrupt the city’s television reception.

Before fire pagers were introduced, the only way to call volunteers was the fire siren at the station at the far end of town, but at the other end where he lived, it was hard to hear if a wind was blowing north, he said.

So Phillips, an electrician, met up with his fellow squad and neighbor, John Sollett, an amateur radio enthusiast, and pooled their knowledge to invent a solution.

“We have a handheld two-way radio transmitter and I hooked up half to the fire siren,” he said.

“It was the beginning of our location system, but it only lasted a few days.”

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The innovation ended abruptly after he saw a small car traveling up and down his street with a small rotating object on the roof.

“It turned out that we had screwed up the entire television reception, so we were thoroughly scolded and had to quickly dismantle it.”

Many years later, the 79-year-old Phillips is about to receive a 50-year service medal.

He joined the fire police in 1970, a separate group from the brigade that was responsible for safety, traffic control, and firefighter support.

As part of this, he was sworn in as a bailiff by the police, which gave him legal powers to arrest him at the scene of the fire.

Fortunately, he never had to arrest anyone, because the city’s police station was often unmanned, so there was nowhere to put them, he said.

After the dissolution of the fire police, he joined the city’s fire brigade, continuing to support operations rather than in the “hot zone” fighting the flames.

“The local traffic officer asked me to get my heavy traffic license because I had been driving the fire apparatus without one several times,” he said.

Over the years, his electrician skills were often used to disconnect power on home fires.

He also became the brigade’s historian, filling scrapbooks with newspaper clippings, hosting the centennial celebrations in 1984, and amassing a collection of model fire trucks and other memorabilia.

The camaraderie of the brigade was one of the highlights of his career, in addition to being able to take a new fire truck home while it was being tested, he said.

His wife of 58 years, Toni, along with the other brigade wives, sometimes assisted in large fires, including the 2008 freeze factory fire, bringing meals to the crew.

“Usually they were in the background, but they were available to help and they were valuable,” he said.

Deteriorating health meant Phillips had left his active duties, but was still attending practice nights as a spectator.

“He’s been the old man head down there for a long time,” Toni said.

On January 23, Manawatū area manager Mitchell Brown will present him with the 50-year medal.