When he’s not tending to Aucklanders’ spiritual needs, Ross Bay is keeping them safe as deputy chief of the Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade. He tells Sarah Daniell what his firefighting role entails, and how Z Energy’s Good in the Hood initiative helps keep the lights on – literally.

Ross Bay has a cool head which is ideal in times of heat and crisis – not that he would say as much. The deputy chief of the Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade is concise rather than crowing or sentimental when asked why he’s still there, 30 years after first signing up.

“When there’s any kind of crisis you want to be there and help. You get a lot of satisfaction out of that. There’s lots of things you get back – it’s fulfilling – but it’s not about ‘if I do this I will get something back’.”

It starts, he says, with people and community.

“With the Volunteer Fire Brigade, you make friends across a wide range of groups and people that in your ordinary daily working life you might not encounter from different parts of Auckland. There’s a variety of ethnicities, so it’s a really interesting broad group of people. I enjoy that.”

Ross grew up in Papatoetoe and first noticed the Volunteer Fire Brigade as a small boy. Something about it stayed with him till he joined as a student in his 20s. He’s been part of the fire brigade community ever since.

But communities don’t get built and nurtured in isolation. They need many hands, energy and commitment. It’s a commitment that Z Energy’s annual Good in the Hood initiative has made to communities across the country over the past 13 years, supporting hundreds of charities and community groups in the process. Among them is the Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade, a group focused on providing operational support at incidents across the region.

Volunteer firefighting is relentless, demanding work. Of around 600 incidents that their 60-member volunteer brigade attends each year, Ross gets to about 40 – almost one a week. That’s after he’s worked a full week in his “real” job as Anglican Bishop of Auckland. His work takes him to Kaitaia, all of Auckland, to the Hauraki Plains and the Coromandel.

When the pager buzzes, volunteers like Ross spring from their families, lives and the comfort of the couch to help. Not at the minor stuff, like false alarms. It’s what they call “working jobs – a building on fire, a motor vehicle incident where somebody’s trapped, powerlines down, that kind of thing”.

These incidents can be demanding, he says, “especially some of the long-duration incidents where we can be there for quite a long time”.

Or the longest time, like the 2022 floods, in which two volunteer Auckland firefighters tragically lost their lives.

“It was quite overwhelming to see that scale of devastation,” says Ross. “To realise that this is not just a thing for tonight or tomorrow and we’ll be back to normal. These are things that we are present at, but you’re leaving behind people who are seriously affected.”

At the scene of an emergency, the Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade are among the first responders, setting up lights, making sure the public are safe and out of the way. They help keep firefighters safe, manage roads, control traffic, support the work of specialist trucks and even run a mobile kitchen truck, for the long-haul jobs.

They do it all, with one big exception: “We don’t put wet stuff on hot stuff. We can do pretty well anything at an incident that doesn’t involve us wearing breathing apparatus.”

For those responding to an emergency, the only thing that’s important is the outcome, says Ross.

“Volunteer or career staff, it doesn’t really matter. You’re all firefighters, a part of one thing that’s called Fire and Emergency New Zealand. We’re together at incidents to achieve a good outcome for those involved.”

But who helps the helpers? To find out, drive south from downtown Auckland. Just before you get to the airport, hang a left onto Tom Pearce Drive, pull into the Z Energy (Z) service station. Whether filling up or ordering a coffee, every purchase made between 26 August and 22 September gives customers the chance to support a charity in their neighbourhood, just like the Volunteer Fire Brigade.

It’s all part of Z’s Good in the Hood initiative, which gives customers an opportunity to decide where a funding boost should go in their community. Through Good in the Hood, $1 million is divvied up between Z’s service stations, with each store choosing four different local community groups to support. During the voting period, customers get to have a say in how the money is split between the groups by voting for their favourite with an orange token.

Out here, it’s a village, says Z retailer Leatuao Larry Tupa’i-Lavea.

Leatuao has been a retailer with Z since 2016 and is a proud Good in the Hood ambassador and community advocate. “The way I envision Good in the Hood,” says Leatuao, “is this site is our fale, our marae. We service the people around us, so whoever is part of our fale, our marae, our whenua, those are the people we are trying to get on board.

“This place,” he adds, waving his arm towards the forecourt and the shop where you can buy a roadie pie and a coffee, “is the centre of the village.”

He thinks that’s how more businesses should be. “I’m fortunate I grew up in a very communal environment and that I was privileged to have people who guided me to think about community –  who’s around our marae, who’s within our village?”

Brigade member Mark Potter has played a key role in building the relationship with the Z crew, including coordinating the brigade’s participation in Good in the Hood each year. In the five years the Volunteer Fire Brigade has been in that village, funds donated via Good in the Hood have helped pay for expensive lighting used in emergency scenes. High-tech LED lighting means no heavy, clunky generators to heave around. Which means more time for the task at hand.

“That’s probably the most significant thing we’ve been able to achieve over the years through the Good in the Hood funding,” says Mark. “We’re really grateful for that.”

The strength of Good in the Hood lies in its connection to the communities it helps, says Leatuao. The money, donated by Z, is awarded based on customer votes – so for the community groups vying for funds, showing up is key. As Leatuao puts it, “You have to rock up and engage with the customers.”

Because that’s where the magic happens. “The Auckland Volunteer Fire Brigade does that really well – they’re always on site, doing educational work, blowing the horn for the kids. That’s the way I see Good in the Hood – we are providing some financial support to a group that is helping the community, and also educating it.”

Saloni Bajaj knows the magic too. She’s been Team Leatuao since 2016 as operations manager at eight of Leatuao’s Z sites.

“We as a frontline staff think it’s very important. Because the Good in the Hood stands are based at our sites, a lot of people come in, and we can explain to them who the charity groups are and how they can support and vote for them.”

It’s a big responsibility, and Saloni and her teams take it seriously. It’s not just about the money, either. “Mentally, emotionally – charities like the Volunteer Fire Brigade need help from the local communities who they’ll always stand by,” she says.

“Every single token has a lot of weight.”