Unique Mosgiel milestone as father-son firefighting duo honoured together

Watching your son run into a burning building would be a nerve-wracking experience for any father — Station Officer Russell Turnbull has felt the fear many times. SO Turnbull and his son, Senior Station Officer Steven Turnbull, have served 50 and 25 years respectively as volunteer firefighters, and both were awarded their service medals in a special double ceremony in Mosgiel earlier this month. SO Turnbull has served as a volunteer firefighter in five brigades since 1974. He is now at the Mosgiel Fire Brigade. Son SSO Turnbull followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Mosgiel Volunteer Fire Brigade. “One of the things that does stick out in my mind is actually seeing my son go into a burning building … I was thinking ‘what on earth have I done?’,” SO Turnbull said. However seeing his son then come out, unscathed with a big grin, having helped put out a great fire, was a proud moment. It was not unheard of to receive long service medals, but it was becoming increasingly rarer these days, SO Turnbull said. To do it with his son made it all the more special. “We’re one of the few father and son pairs … this is certainly unique to this brigade.” It was thanks to his wife that they had managed to serve for so long, he said. “She’s always been the rock for both of us … If I had to relive it all again, there’s very, very, very little I would change,” SO Turnbull said. While there were some incidents that had stuck with him in a bad way, there were also those jobs that left him coming home with a proud smile. He particularly remembered he was quite happy when he rescued a parachuter who had gotten stuck on the top branch of a tall poplar tree. “I actually had to get her to stand on my shoulders, then got the trusty pocketknife out to cut the harness. “That’s one of those rescues you come home and you feel good about.” For SSO Turnbull, there had not been a single year of his life he had not been in a fire station. Growing up trailing along behind his father and going to the station meant it was only a question of when it would be his turn. “No one ever told me I should join, but I think everyone expected that it was inevitable,” SSO Turnbull said. He joined in 1999 at age 17, and remembers racing out to a fire with his father in the wee hours of the morning, fighting the flames, then going to sit his two bursary exams the next morning. Luckily, he somehow passed despite the zero hours of sleep. Standing on the podium to receive his long service medal with his father was something he had been looking forward to for a long time, SSO Turnbull said. He had reached 25 years over a year ago and chose to wait for his father to tick over to 50 years before celebrating. “I’m leaving the fire service, so it was the last chance we had to do this together. “It was great to be able to do it with Dad.” SSO Turnbull has made the move to Dunedin, and as such responding to incidents in Mosgiel has become unfeasible. He is due to wrap his long career up in September. SO Turnbull, who has no plans to retire from the brigade just yet, said he supposed he would “get by” without having his son in the brigade with him. “I’ll struggle through, I guess … He outranks me now, so I won’t have to put up with that anymore.” laine.priestley@odt.co.nz

Unique Mosgiel milestone as father-son firefighting duo honoured together

Landlords ordered to pay $400 for broken water feature

Another silver for Fairweather

Plans for $80m Catholic cathedral released

Person injured in Dunedin motorway crash dies

Person dies after Templeton crash