As a mum of two, lawyer, firefighter and community volunteer, Ashley Hendy is used to having plenty of projects on the go.
A Motueka volunteer firefighter, Ashley has recently completed rigorous officer training - including simulations of vehicle, gas, medical and property emergencies - passing with a score of 100%. Her Class 2 heavy traffic licence is expected next week, followed by Emergency Response Driving training.
In addition to her work as a lawyer for Glasgow Harley, Ashley helps run the firm’s free community question-and-answer sessions.
And for the mums, yes, she juggles work, children and family life too.
“Sometimes it’s all come apart before 9am.”
For Ashley, adaptability, communication and remaining as calm as possible are all skills that help her meet competing demands. Dinners prepped ahead, a circle of family and employer support, and sometimes a small, circuit-breaking rest are crucial pieces of the puzzle, too.
She believes those mum-life skills translate remarkably well into emergency response.
A move into volunteer firefighting “might be less of a pivot than many mums imagine.”
“Who’s at home during the day? Often mums. Mums are amazing - and may be a sizeable untapped resource.”
And there is another benefit.
“It's a great way to get fit,” she jokes.
Ashley is also aware that volunteering has a wider cost.
“Who’s going to pick up the work? Who’s going to pick up the cost? Who’s going to pick up the kids?”
A list on the side of the truck acknowledges local employers whose staff are brigade members. Friends and family are unsung heroes too.
For Ashley, a role that often involves traumatic fires, crashes and medical events requires a positive community counterbalance.
“The community work fills our cup.”
Ashley coordinates community Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ)-funded initiatives, including an inflatable tunnel where children practise crawling through darkness, fire safety workshops with older children likely to be home alone cooking, and home safety visits.
This winter, she says, the brigade carried out about 40 visits and installed about 300 smoke alarms. The work is seeing incident severity and frequency noticeably drop.
It also makes first responders familiar.
A little girl called Ella once wrote asking Ashley to bring the fire truck to her preschool, even giving her permission to go fast. Too shy to speak to Ashley then, a recent home-safety visit finally broke the ice.
After local children witnessed a traumatic medical event Ashley attended, she later returned and took them for a spin in the truck. She didn't want that difficult day to be their last impression of first responders.
Visibility matters too.
“Are they seeing themselves?”
Ashley wants children to see a variety of men, women and cultures responding to their community, and especially for women to see themselves in those roles.
Becoming an officer is part of Ashley’s determination to be the change she wants to see. Central to her leadership is keeping her truck-mates calm.
Sometimes, she says, they meet people on the worst day of their lives. Her response? “Bugger, what a bad day! It’s OK, we’ve got this.'
‘My job isn’t to worry about who was at fault or what happened. It’s to give them that deep reassurance: 'we’re going to get you out.'” she says.
If you've wondered whether community firefighting might be for you, don't count yourself out before you've had the conversation. Ashley encourages anyone interested in finding out more to get in touch for a relaxed chat about what’s involved: Mike.riddell@fireandemergency.nz.
