By Rhonda Bartle

Andrew Meuli sits in the fire station, a man of good looks, cheer and charm. The epitome of a 'good keen bloke' - amiable, fit and capable - he's back home at Okaiawa after a couple of years away.

Okaiawa is a tiny rural town whose recorded population was 618 at the last census. It lies deep in the Taranaki heartland, under the eaves of the mountain and about 10kms from Hāwera.

Meuli (or Meuls as he is known) has lived there all his life. At 28, he's following in the footsteps of many generations of Meuli farmers, who have worked on Ahipaipa Road land.

"I'm fifth generation farmer on the same farm and third generation fireman," he says.

Hot house: Where the firemen hang out at Okaiawa

The Meulis of Okaiawa
The Meuli family is well known at Okaiawa, and now that he's back in town, Meuls is probably destined to stand out from the crowd.

He likes a good competition, and in the last two years has competed in the fire service Junior Champs, the Sky Tower Vertical Challenge and for the title of Taranaki's Toughest Fireman.

"People probably thought I was mad with the Sky Tower Challenge," Meuls smiles.

In those same two years, during the hunt for the region's toughest fire fighter, Meuls finished 1st in the Open Men's category and 2nd overall  - both times knocked out of first place by less than a flame's flicker.

"I was beaten by point-zero-eight seconds and then two seconds. There's not much in it, and it gets me going back each year."

There's a mixture of pride and humility when Meuls talks of his achievements. Though he's happy enough to give details, he's laid back, no-fuss and low-key. As he says, "It's just another trophy and something to talk about over the beer."

Waiting for a fire: Okaiawa fire uniforms hang on pegs.

More recent inspiration

It was probably more recent forebears who got him started on this odd track to fame. His mother's father was a volunteer fireman and his father Richard Meuli is currently Okaiawa fire chief, officially known as Senior Station Officer.

Meuls well remembers the thrill of being thrown into the cab of the fire truck as a boy.

"I don't know if I should say this, but I first rode in the truck when I was about two or three. Dad would chuck me in. It was a bit more relaxed back then," he laughs.

He easily recalls some of the fires the service was called to fight. "It was all part of growing up. One was a car fire  - a little kid in it with a puppy and the puppy was killed. It's one of those things that stick in your mind."

The biggest fire in Okaiawa was in the 1980s when the Taranaki By- products building burned to the ground.

Where's the fire? Meuls leans on the fire truck in the Okaiawa Fire House.

A bit of action

Meuls joined the service when he came back from overseas. "I'd been away for three years and I came back, went farming, and I just knew I wanted to do something for the community," he says.

"Being part of the volunteer fire service is good. It's got a bit of adrenalin, a bit of action and does a service at the same time."

A dozen men make up the Okaiawa crew. As back-up for the Hāwera Fire Service, they are often called to Fonterra, New Zealand's Multinational Dairy Company and the world's largest exporter of dairy products, on the outskirts of Hāwera.

Though there is less risk of fire today, with smoke detectors and other technology in place, most blazes are more harmful because of widespread use of synthetics and plastics which produce toxic smoke.

Fire, water and special training

Out in the rural backblocks, things haven't changed much from early settler days when fires often raged due to a lack of water.

Sourcing water is always a concern, particular in the dry summer months Meuls says. "We pretty much have a problem every time we go out. Finding water is our biggest worry, especially out in the country here.

"We can draught out of a stream or build a dam, whereas those in the city just plug into a hydro. It's a bit different out here. We have to be thinking all the time. We train how to build a portable dam and conserve water."

As well as normal fire training, the crew train hard for fire service competitions.

"It's another side of the fire service," Meuls says. "It's good to get the Okaiawa name out and about. We're kinda country bumpkins. It was Okaiawa who? when we got up to Auckland."

But for the last two years, the Okaiawa crew have won the Taranaki Junior Champs (based on experience, not age).

"We went to the National Hose Running comps and everyone knew who we were then."

Two of the team have fathers who are fire fighters. "We were both in those hose running competitions," Meuls says. "I remember Dad doing that. We were both just little kids running around on the sideline back then."

The Sky Tower or bust

So what makes a grown man want to race up the Sky Tower stairs wearing 25 kilograms of fire-fighting apparatus?

"Yeah, I know. It's pretty crazy," Meuls grins. "And that's in fire-fighting gear that's not designed to breathe, but designed to protect."

It was a fine cause that drove him and three other Taranaki fire fighters to join more than 80 other competitors from all around New Zealand, to be first to the top of Auckland's tallest structure in March 2004.

"We raised money for the Child Cancer Foundation, and 100% of that money raised went to them."

Though he and his colleagues found sponsorship of $1600 in just three weeks, next time they'll be more organised. "We'll get out in the public's face," he promises, "and raise more."

The 2005 Sky Tower Vertical Challenge was cancelled, but it will be held again in March, 2006.

Compare the stairs

It must have been a strange sight, watching Andrew Meuli train for the ascent by jogging around Joll Park under the weight of his breathing equipment, but that's what he did before the Sky Tower race.

Though farming keeps him fit, he worked out by sprinting while carrying weights and doing push-ups to gain upper body strength.

He also used the mountain, Taranaki, as a training ground, running up down the steep stepped tracks. And of course the most logical of all - the Hāwera Water Tower.

While the Sky Tower boasts 1200 stairs, the Hāwera Water Tower has just 215, so the plan was to run up the water tower six times in a row as practice, and to gauge the time it took. 

This he did many times. "I just wanted a rough idea to see how long it would take me to get up the Sky Tower.

"I knew how long others had taken. I'd get up there, touch the top, run back down and go back up again. Six times. I think I was running about 12 minutes for the six climbs.

"It's a twilight zone in there," Meuls says of the narrow concrete steps. "The odd window here and there. At the top, it's quite pokey, especially with your gear on."

Inside the Hawera Water Tower: Handrails, stairs and tiny windows

Reach for the Sky

The Sky Tower, on the other hand, was "brilliant, wide, and you could pass people on the way up."

Meuls admits he found the event quite hard. The race began with a 200 metre sprint down the street - and no practice run.

"In each squad, there might be 20 people, staged to start at 5 second intervals. Once inside the tower, you get into a kind of rhythm and I did a couple of floors two at a time."

By the time he reached the top, his suit was slick with sweat. "You lose a lot. Your body just pumps it out. It's probably hard on the body, but it's a part of fire fighting.

"It's the same as being in a fire for a couple of hours. You're working pretty hard. It's pretty exhausting."

Staying on top

Afterwards, Meuls stayed at the top to cheer other competitors on and watch the scoreboard. His time of 12.08 minutes gave him a well-earned second place in the Donned category.

"Eighty-eight competed this year, from all around New Zealand. There's Donned, with your breathing apparatus and no mask, and then there's Donned and Started, which I'll probably do next year, which is with your mask on and breathing from your tanks.

Afterwards, he drank "a hell of a lot of water, came back down, got rid of my gear and went to the pub." The night that followed, he laughs, "was long to match the climb!"

Pleased to have the Hāwera Water Tower there

As a local, Meuls is very glad to see the Hāwera Water Tower restored. Built in 1912, it opened its doors to the public again in 2004.

It was, he says, a logical place to train. "We needed some stairs to train the muscles that were going to be used, so obviously, it was the right choice."

He'll use it again next year as preparation for the 2006 event.

He's pleased that it's become a sustainable local icon. "When you're a kid, you can see the mountain in the daytime and the red lights of the tower at night. It's safe now, and there's a good view from up there."

But mostly he enjoys being back in the Okaiawa community and part of the fire brigade.

"We're all farmers pretty much, though one's a butcher, and strictly volunteer. When the pager goes off, we go.

"It's a good little community, a good crew of guys," Meuls says. "You always know you have a good man behind you in a fire."