There was a “reasonable turnout” at the Clyde Volunteer Fire Brigade open day on Sunday (July 31), which also offered an opportunity to support local firefighters in their Skytower Challenge. 

Around 20 residents and visitors looked around the station and tried out using a ‘grab and go’ defibrillator. 

Chief fire officer Steve Gee said despite it being a very cold day, as the sun came out so did a steady stream of people.

“The demo was hands-on for people… the grab and go defibrillators in and around our community are not as scary as they look.”

Steve said visitors went away feeling “much more confident” with using one of the machines should they ever need to.

The Clyde Volunteer Fire Brigade was planning to make demonstrations like this more regularly at local high profile events. 

There was no cost to try out the defibrillator or visit the station, but firefighters were requesting a donation to their Skytower Challenge (on August 20) supporting the Blood and Leukaemia Foundation of New Zealand. 

The Clyde team has raised $1990.00 so far this year. There are three Clyde firefighters training for the event (Tim Paulin, Barry Nevill and Wayne Hill) along with Central Otago District Council mayor Tim Cadogan. 

Clyde team captain Tim Paulin said he has taken part in the challenge seven times.

“Training is as hard and horrible as it has always been.

“It's good for multiple reasons, it gets us together, there is the social side and then we keep fit too.”

Cromwell and Alexandra firefighters are also participating in the fundraising climb. 

Loaded up with 23 kgs of kit; a member of the Clyde team taking part in the 2021 Skytower Challenge

The challenge involves firefighters from across New Zealand climbing 51 flights of stairs, carrying 25kg of firefighting kit. It is the 18th consecutive year of the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge. 

The event raised $17,500 in its first year, and now raises over $1M each year. Along with Kiwi firefighters international competitors come from Australia, Chile, Germany, Croatia and the United Kingdom. 

The Central App will let you know how our local firefighters go on the 1,103 individual steps to get to the top of the sky tower.