Geraldine firefighter Rob Hands recently retired from his role as Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s Mid and South Canterbury district manager after a career which started in 1979.

At its simplest, he says “it’s about the people.”

Rob has seen most things in firefighting, from built to natural environment work, and from ground operations to incident management and wider management, wearing volunteer and professional ‘hats’, and as navigator and facilitator of organisational change.

It was the New Zealand Forest Service, one of three Department of Conservation (DOC) precursor organisations, that attracted 19-year-old Rob.

“I was working and training in fire, carrying out controlled burns, and responding to incidents threatening forests.” Shortly after, he joined the Geraldine Volunteer Fire Brigade, remaining until 2014.

Early on, he says, “I grew to appreciate how you could help the community.”

When DOC started in 1987, Rob made the segue from the NZFS.

A decade later, he became South Canterbury’s principal rural fire officer, with Mid Canterbury in 2016 added to the fire district.

The trajectory was toward legislative reform: Fire and Emergency New Zealand began in 2017, merging rural and urban, and volunteer and professional firefighting nationally.

It was Rob’s job to make it happen in Mid and South Canterbury, from 2021 as district manager.

“I was supported. You’re only as good as the people around you … There’s been a lot of good in FENZ.”

“The volunteers are better looked-after,” he says.

“They have more resources and better terms and conditions and standards, and health and safety and wellbeing is outstanding.”

Rob’s career has been about the people he worked for and with.

“Every aspect of my work had people in it. Those people are still friends today. It seems cheesy, but it’s about people and the relationships.”

-Geraldine News