Recent Events

Recent Events
see also Recent Emergency Calls and Press Releases

10 March 2000
Hi all. As you may have noticed the PVFB site has been pretty much in stasis for the last year. Sorry about that... personal circumstances prevented me from spending time on it. This has changed now, and with several new computer-savvy firefighters in the ranks now we shouldn't have that problem again (!).

22 January 1999
Our biggest call of the year so far today. A large scrub fire north of Pukerua Bay (as seen on TV) eventually ended up requiring two helicopters to work for four hours extinguishing it, and led to the closure of both SH1 and the main truck railway line for most of the morning. It was followed by a smaller scrub fire later the same day south of Pukerua Bay (see the "calls" and "press release" sections for more details). Both fires were apparently sparked by passing trains.

6 January 1999
The Porirua City Council, in association with the Wellington Regional Council, Department of Conservation and the Fire Service, has announced a comprehensive regional fire ban starting today, to run until further notice. Click here for full details.

31 December 1998
We end a very busy year... a new chief, 180 calls (an all-time record), a new website (almost 2000 hits already), new protective uniform, new worries about planned Fire Service "restructuring"... Still, we enter our 65th year in good heart, and with a positive determination to make Plimmerton an even safer community to live in next year.

6 December 1998
We are the champions! The Plimmerton team today won the first "Mana Cup", a skills competition between ourselves and the Tawa, Porirua and Titahi Bay volunteer fire brigades.

18 November 1998
Following publicity in the Kapi Mana and Evening Post newspapers about our "Website of the Week" award, the website today reached the 1000 visitors mark, at an average of 42 hits per day. If you assume that the average visitor stays for 15 minutes, that gives our NEAMS figures a huge boost of over ten hours community contact per day.

14 November 1998
Plimmerton 351 and crew spent a frantic but successful day spreading the word at the Plimmerton School gala. Wat seemed like every single kid in the region clambered through the truck, some several times. Come to that, so did a lot of adults!

9 November 1998
Wa-hay... today this website won the IDG / ComputerWorld magazine "Website of the Week" award. We're the first New Zealand fire brigade site to have achieved this as far as we know...

5 November 1998
Guy Fawkes came and went without any calls for the third year running. For the first time anyone can remember the brigade decided not to bother standing by station during the evening. Your chronicler got to see the fireworks in Wellington for the first time (!).

31 October 1998
The PVFB website has been significantly enlarged in many areas, including the links page. VollyNet is taking off, with about twenty members already, and some important issues under discussion. I've also placed several new SMALL photos around the site and added pages on the extraordinary history of PVFB's station site, a our very special free giveaway offer (!).

28 October 1998
A repeat today of severe rain on the Kapiti Coast, with one man drowned in Waikanae. Plimmerton were not involved this time, though... with more warning of the oncoming weather, control moved a number of pumps up to the coast from Wellington city.

27 October 1998
"VollyNet", the internet mailing list for New Zealand volunteer firefighters, is up and running! To join follow the link from our homepage, or click here.

24 October 1998
The brigade's website went "live" today for the first time.

21 October 1998
Major flooding led to Plimmerton 351 and crew spending the night in and around Paraparaumu, where a State of Emergency was eventually declared (over 100mm of rain fell in 24 hours). Ten working jobs in twelve hours, plus the frustration of not being able to do much for people in such impossible conditions, made for a tired brigade...