He received an Otago Southland Gold Star Association life membership badge at the Ravensbourne Fire Brigade annual dinner last week, in recognition of his 25 years as an association member.
Mr Walker, who is a Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village resident, switched from his career on the water in the merchant navy to fighting fires in 1970.
He had survived a shipwreck on Holmbank, which struck Whale Rock, near Akaroa, in 1963, and the crew boarded a lifeboat to be transferred to MV Waimea and on to Lyttelton.
However, containerisation was stripping out jobs in the shipping industry at the time, so when he saw an advertisement in the Otago Daily Times for a role initially at the Castle St fire station, he applied.
During Mr Walker’s time in the fire service, a few moments had stuck in his memory especially.
That included a 14-hour shift on Guy Fawkes night when he was involved in 33 callouts; the 1977 Wingatui racetrack grandstand fire; the horror of finding a young person dead in the hallway of a house that was ablaze; and attending the 1984 Southland floods.
His most dangerous assignment was in a fish factory on a Norwegian stern trawler.
It could only be accessed from above and due to the heat and exertion, he lost 5kg in five hours.
Following Mr Walker’s retirement from career firefighting in 2011, he stayed on for a couple of years as a volunteer firefighter with the Ravensbourne volunteer fire brigade, with which he attended callouts along the western suburbs of Otago Harbour.
Now, he is a resident of the Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village, in a room with an ocean view which helps him feel at home.
After selling his old dinghy Bucko, he bought a motor boat.
When Glen, one of his two children, is in town, they go fishing for blue cod off the coast.
His daughter Megan said that Mr Walker’s time within the fire service had mainly been on the frontline and he had trained firefighters in Dunedin.
