Maniototo ward Central Otago district councillor Stu Duncan said he had just heard at a recent Civil Defence meeting in Ranfurly that about 95% of emergency roles in New Zealand were done by volunteers — including almost everyone around the board table — when pagers began to sound around the room.
"I don’t think other communities realise when you get a community this size how many volunteers [there are] ... as soon as that alarm went off every one of us in this room — we are all fire and emergency or ambulance — got a page to say there’s an incident."
It might be time to lobby for paid roles in rural areas, he said.
Growth in the area included potentially "massive" industrial projects "whether it be gold mines or solar farms or dams or irrigation or Onslow or power companies", he said.
These "billion-dollar businesses" were not necessarily contributing to the local volunteer base.
"Is there an opportunity for us to lobby Fire and Emergency [New Zealand], Civil Defence, to get paid people in our roles?
"Because if you want us to be on your community boards and your boards of trustees and doing other jobs, for God’s sake value the volunteers."
With that, at last week’s meeting, the pagers went off, summoning volunteers to assist with a vegetation fire at Goodwood, south of Palmerston.
There was a discussion about who would attend the callout and whether there would be a quorum left for the community board meeting to continue.
Board member Duncan Helm and Cr Duncan left the meeting, leaving the three other board members to continue without them.
About 25ha of pine trees burned at the Goodwood fire, one of several major fires that ignited across the South on the day during hot and windy conditions.
The Goodwood fire was reported about 2.35pm and 10 fire appliances and four helicopters responded.
