Pendarves Volunteer Fire Brigade member Simon Harwood is remembering one of New Zealand’s largest wildfires as he reaches 25 years of firefighting service.
The 52-year-old was serving with the Upper Takaka rural brigade when the Pigeon Valley Fire broke out in 2019.
He said it was a challenging scene for himself and fellow crew members during his involvement over seven nights.
The fire, sparked by a tractor ploughing a paddock, overall took one month to bring under control.
‘‘Just the size and the scale, and just how physical it was to get on top of it,’’ Harwood said.
‘‘It was dark, it was smoky, it was eery the first couple of nights. In the dark you just had to be careful.’’
He remembered one night in particular when he and fellow crew members were in a gully and battled flames which persistently moved towards them.
‘‘We kept kind of fighting it, eventually it was just breaking daylight.’’
Then they saw a helicopter come on the scene, ‘‘like an angel’’, with a monsoon bucket and deal to the flames.
Harwood said one of the things he found most rewarding over his 25 years was being able to support people when they were at their most vulnerable, on calls to car accidents and medicals.
‘‘You do go to all types of situations, if you can just be reassuring I guess. It might just be you are sitting there, holding someone’s arm.’’
At Upper Takaka, he was a founding member and had been in the brigade alongside his two brothers and son Mackenzie.
He was enjoying continuing on the camaraderie among firefighters at the Pendarves brigade, which he joined three years ago after moving to Wakanui with wife Cristina and their two daughters.
Harwood received his fire service Gold Star for 25 years at a function at Salmon Tales late last month.
