Sunday, June 22, 2008

Visited Fire Station No 5

Another weekend another photo shoot, my poor hubby is starting to think he is living alone as I flit around the country taking photos for the 2009 Calendar. This weekend I headed to Duntroon in the Southern Fire Region of the South Island. Duntroon is about 30 minute drive from Oamaru in North Otago. It is a Volunteer Station, with at present 9 Volunteers. They have 2 Females in their Brigade.
Marion Baird is 61 years and has been in the Brigade for 20years, She said she is pretty much Mum to the Brigade, doing all those jobs, ie sewing, cleaning, organising etc and she holds the rank of Senior Fire-Fighter, drives the Appliance when needed and has also been the Brigade Secretary for 22 years. Marion is married to the Fire Chief, Lawson Baird. They run the local School Bus Company, both driving the School children to and from their schools. She actually joined to help man the Comm centre of the station but found to do that she had to be a firefighter. Once she trained then there was no point in just manning the radios, she could go out on the calls. Marion has 2 Daughters, 1 who was a Fire Fighter with the Brigade till she moved away, and 5 Grandchildren.
Marion is a Breast Cancer Survivor, she lost a Breast to cancer at the age of 44, 3 years after becoming a Fire-fighter. She is such an inspiration, showing that life can go on with the right attitude and support, helping others in their time of need. Her eldest daughter is also a Breast Cancer Survivor, having lost a breast to cancer 9 years ago at age 29.
Sally Pilbrow is 61 and is an Operational Support Person with the Duntoon Brigade. Sally has been in the Brigade for 18months and joined after her Husband Geoff Pilbrow, also a member of the Brigade, passed away on the Fire Ground due to a Massive Heart Attack in 2006. She joined partly to fill Geoff's position as OS and partly for companionship.
Sally bides her time between Timaru, where she works part-time as a Craniosacral Therapist, and Duntroon for some time off and to help the Brigade out when the siren goes off.
Sally has 2 sons and 2 Grandchildren.
On arriving at the Station on a chilly Sunday morning, my niece who come along for company, and myself were greeted with date scones and mousetraps for morning tea. Betty Eckhardt, who helps with catering at the station had made sure we weren't hungry before we started taking the photos. After we got the photo we wanted we were treated to a lovely BBQ lunch also at the Station and got to meet more of the Brigade.
I have been so overwhelmed with the hospitality shown by each Station as I meet the applicants for the first time, while on my journey to put this calendar together.

1 comment:

mrsG said...

Marion and Sally are such a great inspiration to all that read this blog and it takes women like this to set the barr in our communities...