Johnny Nation, on the ball 49 years

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 626, 5 March 1996, Page 8

Johnny Nation, on the ball 49 years

In his 49 years as a member of the Ohakune Volunteer Fire Brigade Johnny Nation has seen many fires. In the old days half the call-outs were to chimney fires, and the other half were grass and sawdust fires. Chimney fires were very common when Mr Nation first joined up in 1947, as most of the houses were made of wood and open fires were the main source of heat. As Johnny is of a light build his job was to check the chimneys between the ceiling and the roof to make sure the fire hadn't cracked the wood in the mainly matai chimneys. This involved climbing into a man-

hole set in the ceiling and then carefully crawling along the rafters to the chimney. "You had to be terribly careful to walk along the rafters, you couldn't step on the match lining or you would have been through the ceiling into the fire," recounted Mr Nation. Fortunately Johnny never did fall through the ceiling or even have any really close calls, which is remarkable considering there was no breathing apparatus and there was only a wet handkerchief tied around his mouth between him and the thick smoke. In the late 1940's and 1950' s not many people had cars so when the siren sounded, the fire fighters had to either run or bike to the fire station. Another stumbling block was negotiating the dirt roads in the fire truck. "We got stuck many times on the way to a fire," he said, "and when we got there, finding a supply of water to put the fire out could be very difficult, especially in Rangataua or Karioi where there are no really close streams." Johnny said the saddest experience he had as a fire fighter was helplessly watching the Rangataua School burn down because there was no water available to put the fire out. Often the firemen were forced to resort to beating the fire with wet sacks, because of the absence of a nearby stream or water tank. "We would come home absolutely filthy, covered in grime from the fire, soaked through from keeping the suction end of a hose in the creek or from the water sprayed from another hose. Our wives were always going crook with all the baby things to wash as

well as our fire clothes." Johnny adds that the washing was a big job then as it was all done by hand in the copper. Probably the best fire Johnny attended was at The Argonaut Hotel (now Turoa Lodge) where a drunk had fallen asleep in bed while holding a cigarette near some curtains which then smouldered and sent up huge clouds of black smoke that filtered through the roof. "The proprietor justly thought there was a big fire in the ceiling, and it wasn't until we had smashed our way into the manhole which was in the linen cupboard, climbed on all his linen with our muddy boots, and investigated the ceiling that the source of the trouble was discovered. We then drank all his grog and went

home." Chimney fires were never really a threat to life as houses were so small. However, people always tried to save their possessions and Johnny can recall one occasion when in the stress of a fire two men found the strength to carry a piano out of a burning house, but when the fire was out it took six people to carry it back in. On another occasion the blacksmiths caught on fire and the fumes from a huge pile of horse dung knocked several of the fire fighters out. Another fire threat was the sawdust from the various mills on the outskirts of the town. These fires took about five hours to put out and then they would smoulder for about a week afterwards and the whole town

would be in a haze. Over the years that Johnny Nation has been in the Ohakune brigade, the type of incidents fire fighters are called out to has changed dramatically as has the equipment used to fight the fires. However, the strict standards the fire fighters are expected to adhere to have not changed. Johnny says that the brigade is very strict and if you missed three meetings without good reason then you were out of the brigade. "You had to be on the ball all the time" he said. And after 49 years of dashing out the door of Nation' s Skiers Inn, often leaving a stunned customer wondering what was going on, no doubt his heart will still leap every time the siren goes off.