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:: Firefighter retires
after 37 years |
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The original garden gnome is handing in
his hat.
29 October 2004 -
www.nelsonmail.co.nz
By
KATHERINE HOBY |
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Nelson
senior firefighter Rod Gill, who earned his nickname because he used
to tend station gardens, is leaving the Fire Service after 37 years.
Mr Gill
has a long-standing affection for the gnomes, and famously waged a
battle with senior station officer John Harvey, who declared the
gnomes to be "the height of tack".
Even
after his resignation due to medical problems, at least 10 gnomes
remain - including the original station overstayer called Harv.
Despite stepping down, Mr
Gill still feels the temptation to help when he hears a siren. "I
still think of them. I think, `I wonder what the boys have got'?" he
said. "That probably is there for the rest of my life."
Mr Gill
conceded he was probably always destined to be a firefighter. His
father was a member of the Home Guard during World War 2, and was a
founding member of the Stoke Volunteer Fire Service.
Almost
every family memory revolved around the Fire Service, he said.
He had
been a member of the Stoke volunteer service for just six months
when, on a three-week course in Wellington, he was involved in a
call-out to the Wahine disaster.
"Our
job was to recover bodies from the surf and put them up above the
high water mark," he said.
Mr Gill
said the job that day was overwhelming for an 18-year-old.
There
was a lot of camaraderie between frontline firefighters, he said.
"There's gotta be. You rely on them to back you up and they rely on
you to back them up," he said.
"It's
these same people you sit around the table and have a cup of tea
with and talk things out after you've been to a fire.
"That's
what keeps you together."
Mr Gill
is unsure what he will do now, but said he would miss being a
firefighter.
"I
can't not miss it. It's been a lifetime," he said.
"I will
still come down for a cup of tea."
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