36 years making a difference

Over the past 36 years he has fought countless fires, rescued children and animals, been commended for his heroism and was fired and reinstated.

Now long-serving Dunedin firefighter Mike Meaden is beginning a new adventure.

He and his wife Dorothy, a United States citizen, have packed up their possessions, their two dogs and Mr Meaden's restored Morris Minor van and moved to a lifestyle block in the US state of Virginia.

Mr Meaden (61) said at his New Zealand Fire Service farewell function last week he was going to miss the work and his colleagues but was not sad about leaving.

"It's just right. It's that time. As my wife says, when one door closes, another door opens."

Mr Meaden has a permanent visa enabling him to work in the US.

He said he "really didn't know and didn't care" what he did next, but hoped to work with young people, perhaps at summer camps.

A qualified kayak instructor, he has tutored at an outdoor adventure camp at Berwick for 19 years and has also been involved with a Fire Service programme counselling children who have set fires.

Mr Meaden served in the British army before joining the New Zealand Fire Service in Dunedin in 1975 after working his way around the world via Europe, Africa and Australia.

Asked what he would remember most about his work, he highlighted the people.

"There is an exit interview you do when you leave the Fire Service and they ask you what the three things are that you like about the service. I just put 'people, people, people'. The Fire Service is a family and each of us plays our part to a smaller or greater extent."

Mr Meaden hit the headlines in the late 1990s when firefighters clashed with the Fire Service Commission over a stalled negotiations on their expired employment contract.

He had received a citation for helping to rescue a boy from the surf at Tomahawk Beach in 1992 but returned the framed award to Fire Service Commission chairman Roger Estall in 1997 as a protest.

Worse was to come. The following year he and fellow Dunedin firefighter Barry Ritchie were sacked after a confrontation with Mr Estall during a Dunedin visit by the chairman.

Both took personal grievances for wrongful dismissal. Mr Ritchie reached a confidential settlement and withdrew his claim and Mr Meaden got his job back after a hearing in the Employment Court.

Mr Meaden did not want to talk about that "difficult time" other than to say "it was time to stand up and be counted".

He had no ill feeling towards Mr Estall, whom he said represented a commission "trying to screw the whole service down". Mr Estall resigned in 1999.

"He left and I was still here. That just about says it all," Mr Meaden said.

Unexpectedly, Mr Meaden's citation was returned to him.

"About four years after I sent it to the commission it arrived back in the post one day."

Mr Meaden was secretary of the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union and was recently made a life member.

- allison.rudd@odt.co.nz