The tight-knit Glenavy community can now count on medical help from its volunteer firefighters.

As remote Stewart Island's fire brigade celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is one of many rural volunteer brigades the length of the country that struggles to get the volunteers, hardware and even water that it needs to serve its community.

In June 1980, the Oban Volunteer Fire Brigade dispatched its first response Land Rover to a house fire on Stewart Island. On arrival the team encountered a problem which meant their pump was not working.

Following behind was the "Big Bertha" Bedford fire truck with the fire brigade on board. Unfortunately halfway to the the scene "Bertha" blew a drive shaft and she was going nowhere.

OBAN FIRE BRIGADE The Oban volunteer fire brigade was still young when it the local Ferndale Guest House caught fire. At the time the 60-bed lodge was accommodating the international Hunt Petroleum Company oil rig maintenance workers.

The fire crew was forced to hitch a ride, so they commandeered the district nurse's Jeep – and arrived at the scene to find the smouldering ashes.

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JOHN BISSET / FAIRFAX NZ South of Timaru, Glenavy volunteer fire recruit Jackson Henshaw and station officer Gareth Pearce have gained their first responder certification. Often they get to a sick or hurt person before the ambulance or police.

Though they may attend fewer call outs than other brigades (five official call-outs to date for 2016), the Oban fire brigade plays a hugely important role on Stewart Island given their geographical isolation.

As they mark their 50th anniversary, they are facing some of the same problems as other volunteer brigades: declining populations and longer work hours make it harder to find volunteers; money is tight and – at least in Oban – water is short.

The government has announced a $303 million overhaul of fire services to create an organisation "fit for the 21st century". The NZ Fire Service, mainly responsible for urban parts of the country, is merging with the National Rural Fire Authority and more than 40 other rural fire services to create a single organisation, Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

SUPPLIED The Oban fire station in the 1980s, its appliances gleaming after a good wash.

A total of $191 million will be spent to address funding gaps in rural fire services and provide more support to volunteers, such as equipment and training – money that can't come soon enough, some firefighters believe.

Many rural communities are beyond the easy reach of not just the professional firefighters of the big towns, but also ambulances and police. The volunteer fire crews are the heart of these remote communities.

Stewart Island's isolation was the whole reason for the existence of the brigade. On April 14, 1966 the residents of Stewart Island held a public meeting. A collection was held which raised a total of £248.

OBAN FIRE BRIGADE The Oban volunteer fire brigade in action on remote and often straitened Stewart Island.

After an initial training course held on the island the Invercargill Fire Board accepted an offer of 80 pounds for the purchase of a Gwynne Trailer Pumping Unit – and the Oban Volunteer Fire Brigade was born.

The pump unit and trailer were stored in a lean-to shed in the dog pound site. The siren was hand-operated because there was no power on the island.

In August, the Oban Volunteer Fire Brigade will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their recognition as a volunteer fire brigade by the New Zealand Fire Service.

JOHN BISSET / FAIRFAX NZ Glenavy volunteer fire brigade members, often first on the scene at accidents and illnesses, have now passed their first responder accreditation. Pictured from left at front, deputy chief fire officer Wayne Ross, senior station officer Wayne Direen and fire chief Bevin Joyce.

Chief firefighter Jarrod Baird says there are a few points of difference from their colleagues on the mainland. "Firstly, the island does not have a reticulated water supply. The fire brigade pumps water out of tanks or the ocean."

Secondly, the fire brigade has no immediate back up.

Many of the 19 volunteer firefighters in the brigade work on boats or at the salmon farms. Despite the nature of their work, they have always managed their duties as a fire brigade, he says.

They deal with the standard house fires, accidents, medical events and rescue operations, but they also pump out boats that have hit the rocks, Baird says. On occasion firefighters have travelled to rescue jobs on helicopters or boats. "We might not have a call for three or four months then then we'll get a couple. It seems to run in threes and fours."

Southland Fire Commander Bruce Stubbs says the Oban brigade is equipped with additional resources, unusually for such a small brigade.

For the amount of emergency calls the brigade received, and the population that they covered and the risks they dealt with, the brigade would be expected to get only a single fire truck with a support van. "Because we need certain amounts of water to be able to be applied to a fire, they've got a second pump [fire truck]."

The brigade had extra pumps, more hoses, equipment to recharge their breathing apparatus and rescue equipment for vehicle accidents. "There's more than enough resources there to deal with the risk they have got," he insists.

"If we needed to back them up we can get in a helicopter here, throw our rescue gear in and fly over and help them."

FIRST RESPONDERS ON SH1

It's an old cliche, but it rings true in the small South Canterbury town of Glenavy: everyone knows everyone.

More importantly, as the town's Chief Fire Officer Bevin Joyce points out, everyone looks after everyone.

This town is like so many others in rural Canterbury.

Its main street is State Highway 1, and the Glenavy Store serves as supermarket, corner dairy, and cafe all rolled into one, often with a few pairs of muddy gumboots lined up beside the front door.

It has a sense of community that sees people quickly put their hands up to help out at the school working bee, or drop a load of firewood off to Mrs Jones down the road when they notice she's run out, Joyce says.

It was also that sense of community that prompted the town's volunteer fire brigade to up their expertise and take on the challenge of first responder training.

The qualification means 17 of the brigade's 22 members can respond to a wider range of medical calls. Previously, they were only able to provide just enough first aid to keep someone alive until help arrived.

It's an important – and life-saving – step up for the town, given that the closest ambulance can be as far as 45 minutes away.

Joyce recalls attending a motorbike crash on a rural property in the area. The nearest ambulance would usually be in Waimate, about 20 minutes away, but that wasn't available.

"We were waiting for an ambulance from Timaru, it was in quite a rural, remote roading area. It took about 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive."

It beat a rescue helicopter scrambled from Dunedin by just 10 minutes.

Prior to the firefighters gaining the new qualification, that was just a reality of living in Glenavy. Now, Joyce says, help can be there in as quickly as five minutes. "It's a peace of mind thing," he says. "Since we've been accredited, we've been to two heart attacks, and one person who was a diabetic and who passed out.

"That was in the last 10 days."

The Glenavy brigade attend about 30 or 40 medical calls each year, Joyce says. That includes "a lot" of car crashes, as well as general medical incidents.

Becoming first responders would mean an increased workload, and Joyce was wary of that. "I don't want people to say 'this is just too much'."

'TO PROTECT AND SAVE LIVES'

Across the country and even in some of the most remote locations, communities can rest easy knowing there is a volunteer fire service nearby who are there to help whenever, wherever.

Over 80 per cent of the New Zealand Fire Service's firefighters are volunteers and Deputy National Commander Paul McGill says numbers are the strongest they've been to date.

But recruiting volunteers is rarely easy. Over the past week, the Fire Service has been advertising for volunteers nationwide on the popular Neighbourly social network. There are 8,300 volunteers in the NZ Fire Service; a further 3,500 with the National Rural Fire Authority. Some brigades have been serving communities for over 150 years.

"Most of our volunteer firefighters have very long service and they really are fully responsible for the service they run in the community," says McGill. "Most of these brigades have been going for a long time and it's been sustained by and ongoing effort of people who are very generous of their time."

McGill says the top reasons why people put their hand up is to serve their community and protect and save lives. These are also reasons why the longest serving volunteers have stayed in the front line.

"They're in New Zealands most remote and small communities, so they really respond to local community need whatever it is and often they're the only response in those communities... this is why some people join and why they stay in the brigade.

"There's a strong sense of purpose".

But the population is growing faster, and most significantly for the rural brigades, the population is drifting away from provincial towns and into the cities.

Over the decades, volunteer firefighters have had to adapt; the job is more than fighting fire. Now, they are medical first responders at 10,000 medical incidents a year.

"There are 50 brigades across the country who are classified as first responders who are trained to a higher level by the ambulance services because they're in communities where there is not an ambulance service nearby," McGill says.

"There's a lot of peoples lives being saved through that arrangement".

Now, they are directing traffic until police arrive.

"What has changed is the Fire Service now takes a much wider range of roles than we did a couple of decade ago. Urban search and rescue, a whole range of rescue activities and medical co-response."

Now, they must document risks and hazards under the new Health and Safety Act, and show what they are doing to minimise the risk of harm.

But ultimately, fire is dangerous.

Mid-Canterbury firefighter Barry Keen, 52, died in 2009 when a burning tree branch fell on him as his crew turned up at a stubble burn-off at Willowby, near Ashburton.

But for every tragedy, there must be a thousand stories of bravery and saved lives.

Christchurch Senior Firefighter Scott Shadbolt was awarded the Valour Medal for his exceptional bravery assisting others after the Christchurch earthquake, rescuing a man trapped in the collapsed six storey Pyne Gould Corporation building. Accompanied by two doctors and a police officer, Scott worked in a confined space amputating then man's legs using improvised tools and enduring numerous aftershocks. The man was successfully rescued – but Scott continued to work at the building following this act until late into the night.

Down state highway 1 In Glenavy, they are not too short of volunteers. Glenavy brigade is allowed to have 24 on the books, and is almost at full capacity.

Chief Fire Officer Bevin Joyce puts that down to being part of a small community. "Not one of them has an ego, they're only in it to help the community," he says.

"We tend to look after ourselves."