Matakana Volunteer Fire Brigade

11/10/2026

A huge shout out to 🅂🄾🅄🅁🄲🄴 🄺🄸🅃🄲🄷🄴🄽 for hosting our brigade honours night yesterday evening.

Matt set the bar incredibly high with this gorgeous table set up, amazing food, fabulous service and an all round wonderful night celebrating our volunteers and their families.

If you’re looking for a space or catering for a function this summer, we can’t recommend Matt and his team from Source Kitchen enough.

Five Stars ✨

A special shout out to our other amazing sponsors who all contributed to making such a memorable event;
THE PAVILION
Matakana Liquor Centre
8 Wired Barrelworks & Taproom
Photography by Heidi
Utterly marquee + event hire
Leigh Sheehan
Matakana Palms

11/10/2026

Congratulations to all our award recipients at our honours night!

But a very special congratulations to Andy Georgetti who took out four awards including Fire Fighter of the year 👏🏽

Andy is one of our most committed volunteers. He has attended almost every call out this past year, rarely misses a training and turns up every week for truck checks and other duties.

We are extremely lucky to have Andy in our community supporting everyone when they call 111 for our help.

Hugest congratulations Andy 👏🏽 thanks for everything you do for our community and our brigade. We are lucky to have you.

03/09/2026

🔥 Congratulations Raegen! 🔥

A huge congratulations to our newest firefighter, and Point Wells local, Raegen Macnicol, who has just completed and passed the FENZ Recruit Course! 👏🏽🚒

It’s an intense course requiring commitment, resilience and plenty of hard work, and Raegen has absolutely smashed it.

And it seems firefighting is well and truly in the blood — with both her grandfather and uncle having served as firefighters. We reckon she’s carrying on a pretty special family tradition!

Please join us in congratulating Raegan on this fantastic achievement! ❤️‍🔥🚒

23/06/2026

Thank you to all the wonderful people in our community who have donated to our Working Under Pressure workshop.

We’re nearly there ❤️ we still need your help!

The support from our community has been incredible, and because of your generosity we’re now a little more than $2,000 away from fully funding the workshop for our volunteers.

This training will help members of the Matakana Volunteer Fire Brigade and Omaha Surf Life Saving Club Search & Rescue Team develop practical skills to perform under pressure when responding to emergencies in our community.

If you’ve already donated, thank you 🫶🏽

If you’ve shared the fundraiser, thank you.

And if you’ve been thinking about helping, now is the perfect time. Together we can get this over the line.

Donation link in bio and stories.

Ngā mihi,

Matakana Volunteer Fire Brigade & Omaha Surf Life Saving Club Search & Rescue Team

12/06/2026

When the pager goes off and the call comes in, there isn’t much time to think.

The Matakana Volunteer Fire Brigade and Omaha Surf Life Saving Club are made up of local volunteers who step up when our community needs us most.

House fires, medical emergencies, missing persons, water rescues and drownings... these situations can be high-pressure and unpredictable.

That’s why we’re raising funds to attend a Calm Under Pressure™ workshop with Dave Wood from Integrated Training.

This practical, hands-on training teaches volunteers how to stay calm, think clearly, communicate effectively, and make better decisions when the stakes are high.

We have $6,000 left to fundraise for this workshop and every dollar donated goes directly towards getting our local firefighters and search & rescue volunteers through this training.

If you’re in a position to help, we’d be incredibly grateful. No donation is too small, and every contribution helps strengthen the emergency response capability of our community.

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/support-the-ongoing-training-of-our-community

Please visit the link in our bio or check our stories to donate.

From our whānau to yours, thank you for your support ❤️

Community

11/06/2026

Community - We Need Your Help 🙏🏽

The Matakana Volunteer Fire Brigade and the Omaha Surf Life Saving Club Search and Rescue Team are made up primarily of volunteers - no obligation, just training, commitment, and showing up for the community when it matters most.

Both teams face real pressure situations. This is our chance as a community to make sure they have the tools to meet it. We’re raising funds to put them through a half-day Calm Under Pressure™ workshop with Dave Wood of Integrated Training on Sunday 26 July, 9am–1pm at Bluestone Estate.

Every dollar raised goes directly toward funding their places at the workshop.

Please donate at: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/support-the-ongoing-training-of-our-community

About Dave Wood
Dave Wood is a former intensive care paramedic turned high-performance coach who specialises in teaching individuals and teams how to perform under pressure. As founder of Integrated Training, he’s worked with Olympic athletes, Navy personnel, and executive teams.
Drawing on a decade of frontline experience, Dave’s sessions combine science-backed knowledge of stress and recovery with practical simulations that replicate real-world pressure. Participants don’t just learn the concepts – they put them to the test in controlled, high-pressure environments that sharpen composure and ex*****on.

Hosted by Bluestone Estate, 106 Bishop Lane, Tāwharanui Peninsula

10/06/2026

Winter is the season for house fires.

As the temperature drops, preventable house fires increase 17 percent on average as people do what they can to keep themselves warm.

Most of these fires will start from items such as clothing, beds or couches being too close to a heater or a fire.

These fires can be fatal but that is preventable with some good habits.

So, instead of bombarding you with every hot tip at once, we’ll build one good habit at a time with our winter fire safety series of Hot Tips

In this series, we’ll cover:
1. Cooking critic turned lifesaver - the humble life of a smoke alarm
2. Escape my house - a race to get out je
3. Size does matter, why items must be 1 metre from the heater
4. Hot under the covers with electric blankets =
5. Belly button or dryer lint - which is more hazardous?
6. It’s spaghetti junction at the multi-board
So, whether you own a home, rent or live with family, building some good habits this winter could save your life.

For some light reading on home fire hazards, go to our website & https://www.fireandemergency.nz/
home-fire-safety/home-fire-hazards/

23/05/2026

Congratulations to our triple threat AT, Rocky + Guy who completed the sky tower challenge yesterday to raise money for blood cancer NZ.

Absolutely huge effort! You made our brigade proud 🫶🏽

11/04/2026

Civil Defence Centres open from 9PM tonight

Our local is:
Shoesmith Hall, Shoesmith Street and Brown Road, Warkworth

UPDATE Monday 13 April | Mōrena everyone. All of our Civil Defence Centres have now CLOSED. Thank you to all of the council staff, our response teams and volunteers and our community partners who worked together to stand these sites up and take care of our communities 🫶❤️

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UPDATE TO CIVIL DEFENCE CENTRE OPENING HOURS:
Sunday 12 April, 2:40pm

We've had 28 people using our Civil Defence Centres overnight, and we're now in the process of closing down those no longer required.

UPCOMING CLOSURES ON SUNDAY 12 APRIL:
-Helensville War Memorial Hall - closing at 2.00pm
-Shoesmith Hall, Warkworth - closing at 6.30pm

These centres will be on standby to open again should the need arise.

-Ellen Melville Centre, Auckland C*D will be stood down at 8pm, transitioning to close at 8am tomorrow Monday 13 April.

Ostend Hall on Waiheke Island and Wellsford Community Centre will remain open overnight.

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Good afternoon Auckland, a couple of really important things.

1️⃣ We've just issued an emergency mobile alert to the Auckland region. We're taking every opportunity to make sure our communities use this afternoon to prepare for Cyclone Vaianu and have a plan in place for Sunday.

2️⃣ From 9pm tonight (Saturday) five Civil Defence Centres will be open.

If you need to leave your home, can’t get home, or can't shelter with friends or whānau overnight, temporary shelter will be available at our Civil Defence Centres in the wider Auckland region.

- Ostend Hall, Waiheke Island - Belgium Street, Ostend, Waiheke Island
- Wellsford Community Centre, 1 Matheson Road, Wellsford
- Shoesmith Hall, Shoesmith Street and Brown Road, Warkworth
- Helensville War Memorial Hall, 2 Porter Crescent Helensville
- Ellen Melville Centre, 2 Freyberg Place Auckland

🏠These centres will provide shelter, light snacks, and some basic sleeping arrangements.

👕 Please bring warm clothing and essential items like medicines, baby and children’s items and special food you may need.

♿️ All Civil Defence Centres are wheelchair accessible

🐶 A small number of pets can be accommodated (cats must be in cages and dogs on a lead).

Check our website for more detail: https://www.aucklandemergencymanagement.govt.nz/your-local/emergency-relief-centres/

Stay safe everyone 🫶

10/04/2026

🚒 Matakana Volunteer Fire Brigade 🚒

Kia ora Matakana community,

With severe weather on the way, we’re asking everyone to take a few simple steps now to help keep yourselves and others safe:

💧 Don’t take any chances with flooded or rising waters
🌬️ Secure loose items around your property (outdoor furniture, trampolines, bins)
🌧️ Clear gutters and drains to reduce the risk of flooding
📞 Call 111 for life-threatening emergencies
🤝 Check on your neighbours, especially the elderly or those who may need a hand
🕯️ Be prepared for a power cut

Being prepared makes a real difference and helps our crews focus where we’re needed most.

For updates and safety advice, please visit:
👉 Auckland Emergency Management: https://www.aucklandemergencymanagement.org.nz/
👉 MetService: https://www.metservice.com/

Stay safe and look out for one another ❤️🚒