From January 1, Shane Trimble took over the leadership of the 16-person brigade from Graham Aston, who volunteered with the brigade for 42 years, 14 as chief.
Mr Trimble said Mr Aston would stay on at the brigade and would support him in the role changeover.
Mr Trimble was the brigade's training officer and has been with Hampden for 10 years.
Before that he and his family were living on a farm in the Mackenzie Basin for 17 years, preceded by life in Wanaka where he was in the Wanaka Volunteer Fire Brigade for eight years.
''My father was a founding member of the Wanaka brigade and went on to become chief. He's a life honorary member up there. It's how I first became interested in the fire brigade.''
Mr Trimble was community-minded and that was what kept him in the service. ''It's doing your bit.''
He said the Hampden brigade attended 60 to 70 calls a year, mostly medical or road crashes.
The brigade was one of the units often turned out to calls on the stretch of road between Herbert and Palmerston, which he believed, had one of the highest rates of fatal crashes in the South Island, if not the entire country.
The brigade had a lot to look forward to in the coming year.
The number of trained first responders just rose from two to four which was made possible by community donations.
Also, a first-response vehicle from Omakau was acquired for the brigade and work was under way with Waitaki District Council to see what additions could be made to the brigade building to accommodate the vehicle.
He expected the New Zealand Fire Service merger in July to mean good things for his brigade too.
''We're hoping we will get a lot more training. At the moment resources are good, but they can always be improved on.''
Over his career he said there were lots of low points, but everyone in the service was ''pretty good'' at supporting each other.
''There's a ring-around after a fatal and we get offered counselling.''
But the highlight was rescuing someone: ''You get to save one person and it's worth it and we've done that with countless people.''
