Last year was another big one for volunteer fire brigades in the Waitaki district.
The 10 brigades from Palmerston to Omarama fielded 907 callouts.
Aside from false alarms, the most common emergency calls were vehicle accidents (179), vegetation fires (158) and medical events (138).
Weston Chief Fire Officer Bevan Koppert said 2024 was "just another normal year".
Weston’s 18-member brigade received 133 callouts — the second-most in the region.
Vegetation fires and motor vehicle accidents were the most common calls in their patch which stretches as far as Tokarahi and Ngapara.
That wide-ranging rural area presented practical challenges but "you’ve just got to do what you do".
Weston also assisted the Oamaru brigade as needed.
Palmerston Chief Fire Officer Gary Johnston said while their 2024 calls remained very similar from 2023, they were looking for new volunteers.
"We could do with one, if not two just to keep numbers steady.
"We manage all right, but a couple of extra members can sometimes just take a little bit of pressure off."
Of their 78 callouts, 18 were to vehicle crashes.
"We don’t tend to get too many localised motor vehicle accidents," Mr Johnston said.
"It probably is more State Highway 1. We go up SH85 towards Ranfurly as well and that road seems to claim a few as well."
Like most volunteer brigades, the biggest challenge for Palmerston was responding during work hours for volunteers.
"The majority of our members work outside of the area or can at any time be outside of the area."
Fortunately Palmerston had the Waikouaiti brigade 10 minutes away and Hampden in the other direction for support.
Omarama Deputy Chief Fire Officer Jack Zorab said they had the same problem.
"We still manage to get the trucks out the doors, but sometimes not with as many people as we need to be fully crewed."
He believed their 127 calls were the most the brigade had had in a calendar year.
"When we’re busy, it means our volunteers are away from home and work for a lot longer so it’s just a really big effort from both the volunteers and also their families and their employers."
To add to the busyness, the brigade also contributed to community events and hosted an emergency services expo last year.
Omarama calls included to 45 medical events, the most of any brigade in the region.
Mr Zorab said this reflected their status as a Fire and Emergency New Zealand medical first response brigade, with some of their volunteers only responding to medical events.
That skewed their call numbers slightly.
"We’ve got 22 members, but when you break it down we’ve got six firefighters, five medical first responders, a few job support, a few recruits and a few admin support, so we’re certainly always looking for new members.
"The team we’ve got at the moment are really functioning at a high level and really tight knit, so they’re coping really well, but of course a few more members just eases the pressure."
