Stu Ide (71) will receive his double-gold star for 50 years’ service, in his 51st year, while his son, Mike, will receive his medal for 25 years’ service, primarily at Frankton.
They are actually the fourth and fifth generations of firefighters in their family. Stu’s great-grandfather was the first of his generation in New Zealand, after arriving from England to Port Chalmers.
His grandfather on his mother’s side, Nicholas Hoskins, followed suit, and then his father Peter Ide was a professional firefighter in Invercargill.
Stu grew up at the fire station flats there, and while he completed his apprenticeship as a watchmaker and lasted two years as assistant manager at a store in Invercargill, "that wasn’t for me".
First joining as a volunteer in 1971, he became a professional firefighter in 1995, before transitioning into fire safety about 25 years ago, initially in Invercargill, then in Queenstown.
While a large part of the job was fire investigations, which he retired from in 2018, he was still an active volunteer, largely working in operational training for the Frankton brigade, and running school Firewise programmes and fire safety promotions, as required.
"My take on promoting fire safety is you’ve got to have it out there, in front of every face, all the time," he said.
"Spending many thousands of dollars on a few ads on TV and hoping it all goes away doesn’t actually work.
"You’ve got to just keep at it and putting it under people’s noses so they understand, actually, fire is quite dangerous."
He said he had noticed a huge decrease in house fires since smoke alarms in homes were made mandatory in 2003.
The rule of thumb, for the fire service, was five smoke alarms in a three-bedroom house: one in each bedroom, the hallway and lounge.
"It’s as simple as that, and they’re cheap as chips."
Meanwhile, his son, Mike, joined the Frankton brigade as a volunteer when he was about 18 or 19, and last year moved to Wellington, where he’s now a professional firefighter with Wellington’s Kilbirnie Fire Station.
They father and son were not meant to get their service awards on the same night, because they were technically in "opposite years" for the Queenstown and Frankton Volunteer Fire Brigades’ annual awards, but because last year’s awards were put off due to Covid, Stu is getting his medal a year late.
"It’s lovely Mike can be there with me and we can both receive a medal," he said.
"I’m just so proud of him. He’s done a lot of volunteer work in the fire service at Frankton and he’s done well, so it’s just nice he and I can do that together."
Also receiving a gold star on Saturday night is Frankton volunteer Karl Argyle, who first joined the Queenstown brigade in 1995 after being encouraged by three mates.
A panelbeater at the time, Mr Argyle said motor vehicle accidents were just becoming part of the fire service’s trade.
"All the cutting gear they had was hand-held hydraulics, same as what we had at the panel shop, [so] I just slipped straight into that side.
"I didn’t actually join to fight fires, I joined to cut people out of cars."
Mr Argyle, now an engineer, spent 11 years volunteering with the Queenstown brigade, two in Invercargill and has been with the Frankton brigade for the past 12 years.
While achieving his gold star was a "milestone", it was also a chance to reflect on the friendships he had made through the fire service, and people he had met and helped, he said.
