Ted Ford has been burning bright as a volunteer firefighter since he and 13 others started the Appleby brigade in 1989.
A house fire at the end of Greenacres Rd in Redwood Valley in the same year took Richmond’s brigade 40 minutes to reach the scene, sparking a request to the council for a rural fire force in the Tasman District settlement.
Its inaugural station was at the council forestry headquarters shed on Rabbit Island until its age, internal layout, and increasing membership prompted its current purpose-built Moutere Highway station, which became ready to respond in 2022.
A retired dairy farmer, Ted has been at the Appleby brigade’s coalface for 35 years and has a love for the camaraderie and giving back to his community.
He says the equipment has improved and nature of incidents changed.
“When we first came into existence the council officer that was looking after rural fire was Ralph Lonsdale… and he had a shed full of stuff that he’d acquired from other urban brigades,” he says.
“We had second, third, and fourth-hand bunker coats, helmets, and plastic over-trousers, and the Tasman District Council gave us leather gardening gloves and a pair of combination overalls. We started off just worrying about vegetation fires, and we now do external attacks on structure fires, respond to motor vehicle accidents, we’re a co-responder with St John for medical emergencies, and also for things like civil emergencies.
“I think the first year we did six callouts and the last few years we’ve done between 90 and 100.”
Ted, who is a current crew leader, says the 2019 Pigeon Valley wildfire, which scorched 2000 hectares of forestry, burns in his memory.
“We were just packing up from a fire at the Eves Valley complex, and when the call came through we shot straight there… we were involved in evacuating people out of Redwood Valley, patrolling fire breaks at night, and picking up hot spots and reignition areas,” he says.
“I had a crew up there for about 16 consecutive nights.”
The 77-year-old says he may look to dial back his service, a flaming good tenure, nonetheless.
