Deserved awards for local firefighters

Maurie Doughty was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to the New Zealand Fire service in the 2017 New Year Honours and was recently presented with the award by the Governor General Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy.

Maurie assumed the role of Chief Fire Officer in Mangawhai in 1998 on the retirement of Des Partington.

He held the post until 2014, retiring after 18 years with the brigade.

However he had been attached to the New Zealand Fire Service since 1974 on a regular intermittent basis.

A Double Gold Star presentation was made to Maurie in conjunction with his retirement to mark a total of 54 years with the NZFS during which he faced, and dealt with, many challenges and changes within the service.

He was also on hand for the jubilee to celebrate the last 50 years of the Mangawhai Brigade held in July 2016.

A Gold Star presentation was recently made to Chief Fire Officer “Paddy” Thornton of the Maungaturoto Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Paddy assumed the role of Fire Chief a year ago when the then chief Eric Bennetto stepped down.

In his 25 years of service Paddy has often been called upon to be much more than a firefighter, assisting in the areas of traffic accidents, medical instances and also tragedies brought on by the vagaries of winter weather.

Call-outs now number over 120 annually, when initially the brigade attended around 50.

Paddy was also instrumental in forming a much more cohesive link between the fire brigade and St John Ambulance service, making a much better service in the event of medical incidents where both factions are often required and crew shortages could be avoided.

Being a volunteer is a personal commitment apart from his own vocation as a farmer, but he admits to being just one of a great team but with total support from a tight-knit community, many of whom were on hand to applaud the award.

RETIREMENT REWARD: Mangawhai and NZ Fire Service stalwart Maurie Doughty presented his Queen Service Medal by Governer General, Dame Patsy Reddy.