Martinborough firefighter Peter Fisher, who was seriously assaulted trying to evict some unwanted guests from a party. – Loren Dougan/ Fairfax NZ
When a firefighter who was nearly killed while trying to help a neighbour learned that his attacker had pleaded guilty, one of his first thoughts, typically, was of others.
Volunteer firefighter Peter Fisher almost died in late 2012 after being savagely beaten by Milton Haira, whom he was trying to evict from a party in Martinborough.
On Monday morning, as his trial was due to start, Haira, now 25, pleaded guilty to one charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Fisher. Milton Haira has pleaded guilty to wounding Martinborough volunteer firefighter Peter Fisher.
A second man, Jack Ffrost, also pleaded guilty to an amended charge of injuring with intent to assault.
Fisher’s father, Brian, said his son was relieved a 2½-year wait for justice was ending, especially because it meant the teenage girls he was trying to help that night would not have to take the stand.
“Peter was very worried about the young girls. For them it was very traumatic as well.”
On October 27, 2012, a neighbour asked Fisher for help ejecting Haira from a gathering of 14-year-olds, which Haira had gatecrashed.
Haira attacked him, leaving Fisher with brain damage and extensive fractures to his eye sockets, nose, cheeks and mouth, including a dislodged palate and three missing teeth.
Hutt Hospital plastic surgeon Swee Tan described repairing his face as like doing a jigsaw puzzle. He was in surgery for five hours and had metal plates put into his face.
Fisher has no memory of the attack. He spent more than 10 weeks in hospital and another two months in a rehabilitation unit.
His father said his son is now working part-time in a Masterton hardware store. While he still struggled with tiredness, he was slowly recovering.
He was still awaiting ACC clearance to get back on the fire trucks and into full-time work, but was training with both the Martinborough and Greytown fire brigades and involved with Greytown’s road crash rescue team.
Brian Fisher, himself a firefighter for many years, said his son might be more cautious in the future, but he doubted he would stop thinking of others first.
“Anybody in the fire service, they get up in the middle of the night to go and help people, they have no idea of the dangers they’re putting themselves into … we’re pretty proud of him.”
The experience had been “devastating”, but had not changed how his son felt about Martinborough. “Peter knows everybody there and he’s had a hell of a lot of support, he loves the place.”
Fisher and his friends, family, partner and daughter were very grateful to their many supporters, and especially to Tan: “[Peter] looks very much as he did beforehand … we didn’t think he’d ever look the same.”
Brian Fisher did not want to comment on how the family felt about Haira.
“I think you can imagine.”
In the court in Wellington on Monday, other charges of assault, threatening to kill and attempting to pervert the course of justice were discharged after a plea bargain was arranged.
Detective Sergeant Matt Wasson, of Wairarapa, who was in charge of the case, said the outcome was a relief.
“It’s been a long road; there’s been a lot of work put in by police and the Crown with assistance from the family and the many witnesses involved.”
Fire crews douse a fire in a hopper in Porirua. CAMERON BURNELL/FAIRFAX NZ
A dangerous-goods expert has been called to a fire in a hopper containing caustic soda in Porirua.
The fire began in a building in Prosser St, Porirua, off Titahi Bay Rd, about 11.30am today.
A hazardous materials unit from from Kilbirnie in Wellington, as well as an aerial appliance from Thorndon and fire crews from Porirua are at the scene.
GUTTED: A family sits across from their home after fire gutted the property. MAARTEN HOLL/ Fairfax NZ
A Porirua family has escaped with the clothes on their back and a few personal items after a fire gutted their home tonight.
As firefighters worked to quell the last of the hot spots, the family including several young children, sat on the footpath. A computer among their saved possessions.
Neighbours reported seeing thick smoke pouring from the wooden home on Maher Pl and ran to help.
June Rameka along with her husband, son and nephew, battled through the black smoke and urged the family members still inside to get out.
“The smoke was so thick it was making us cough. We could hardly see the family inside but they were trying to save a few items. I yelled ‘this place could go up at any time’ and to just get out,” she said.
“And just as I said that, the flames really shot up and there were some small explosions.”
Porirua senior station officer Trevor Sheehan said it appeared some basic fire safety messages had been ignored.
“It looks like unattended cooking may have been to blame and there were no smoke alarms,” he said.
“It should be everyone’s New Year resolution to have working smoke alarms,” he said.
Neighbours were driven back by flames and smoke as they desperately tried to help a man who was heard screaming inside a blazing Titahi Bay, Porirua house.
Kayla Kirby said she could heard screams as she raced next door to the house at 59 Dimock St just before 1am.
She said she was lying in bed watching a movie when she heard a bang and at first thought her mother-in-law had fallen out of bed.
”As I came down the hallway I saw orange light in the back yard…and then saw fire spitting out the back of the [neighbour’s] house.”
She rang 111 and ran next door.
”When I got to the front door I heard screaming and I kept yelling for about 10 minutes to try and figure out where he was.”
”Then the smoke got the better of me and I had to back off and then the flames got to the front door,” said Kirby, who had to be taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
Another neighbour Janine Rao said the two-storey house was completely on fire when she and her husband Edwin rushed outside.
”It was completely raging in fire. You could see the inside completely burning and all we were doing was screaming out for somebody to help as we were waiting for the fire engine to get here.
”My husband checked around the house to see if he could find a way in. He and another man were at the window looking to see if they could get in but it was too dangerous.”
She did not know her neighbour well. He was a quiet man who lived alone and kept to himself.
Relatives of the dead man arrived at the scene this morning as police and fire investigators were going through the rubble.
The victim’s sister, who lives just a few streets away, said she was organising a karakia and did not wish to comment further.
RELISHING LIFE: Blair Marriott’s new prosthetic leg, attached through a process known as osseointegration, is locked into his bone and feels almost like the real thing.
After two rounds of ground-breaking surgery, Blair Marriott is a true bionic man.
The 41-year-old former firefighter, from Paraparaumu, had his right leg amputated above the knee after a motorcycle crash on the Kapiti Coast in December 2010. But he was never totally satisfied with his prosthetic leg, and seized his chance this year to take part in a radical new process called osseointegration, led by an Australian surgeon.
It involves inserting a titanium rod into the bone – in Marriott’s case, his femur, or thigh bone. Designed with pores that enable it to bind with the bone, the implant essentially integrates into the body.
“They knock you out, cut open your leg, then they drill out the inside of your femur with a big long drill,” he says.
“They measure you up for the implant then they literally hammer it into your bone. Then you’re sewn back up.
“Then the bone of your femur knits back into the covering of the implant, essentially locking it in.”
He had the first stage of surgery in March, and the second last month, both performed by surgeon John McKie as part of a New Zealand trial, run by ACC.
Though it has been less than a month since he had the second stage of the surgery, he has already noticed an improvement when pushing his weight down on a temporary leg – he will be given his final leg when he can bear half his body weight.
“It feels like my old real human leg. Not so much the foot, but I can feel my old real knee and it feels like I am pushing weight through it.”
His new leg should enable him to experience “osseoperception”, where he will be able to feel the ground through his nerves and differentiate between surfaces.
With his old prosthesis, he could tell his foot was on the ground only because of the way his hip was angled.
Fellow amputee Phil Coulson, who had the operation in Sydney two years ago, has told him he can now tell when he walks from different material on to grass.
Because he was interested to observe the making of his new leg, Marriott opted to stay awake for the second surgery, in which he was numbed from the chest down by an epidural.
A dual cone adaptor was connected to the internal stem of the implant, which is what the external prosthesis will eventually attach to.
“It was neat watching it,” he says.
“They’re good at what they are doing, but I didn’t like not feeling my body. You certainly get an appreciation for people who are paralysed.”
As well as the titanium implant, Marriott hopes soon to have a new knee installed, called the Otto Bock Genium.
“It’s a $125,000 computerised knee. It’s fantastic.
“The Genium knee understands how fast you’re walking, it sets parameters and, if you all of a sudden stumble, it will lock itself out so you can push back without collapsing the knee.”
‘I Told People How To Tie My Leg Off’
Blair Marriott remembers his motorcycle accident horribly well. “My leg was sitting over there [on the road]. I got hit, sat up, had a look at my leg and went, ‘Oh I’m in trouble,’ and started yelling at people to help.”
As a firefighter for 17 years, he knew what needed to be done. “Because I couldn’t use my hands, I told people how to tie my leg off. Then I managed to call my fiancee and tell her.”
Since the December 2010 accident, in which he was hit head-on by a speeding and stolen car, he has maintained a positive outlook on life.
He still works for the New Zealand Fire Service, but now as an administrator of the computer system.
“I’ve never let a second or a third thought bother me. You’ve just got to get on with it. You can get busy dying, or get busy living.”
– The Dominion Post HOLLY BAGGE – Photo ByJOSEPH JOHNSON
Geared up: Amy Toomath and Paul Setefano from the Porirua Fire Brigade’s Sky Tower Challenge team.
The fundraising battle for the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge is heating up.
In the annual challenge, firefighters kit up with over 25kg of gear and race up the narrow stairwell of Auckland’s Sky Tower.
In the process, they raise money for Leukemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.
Porirua Fire Brigade is sending a team of six to compete on May 17. At present the team leads the fundraising nationwide. Team leader Paul Setefano said he was looking forward to his fifth climb up the tower’s 1103 steps.
“There are two things people like to brag about – one is getting to the top quickest and the other is fundraising – who can raise the most,” he said.
“We’ve always made a point of making sure we raise a decent amount. The last couple of years we’ve been bridesmaids for fundraising, we’ve come second.”
Setefano said four team members were in the top 10 nationwide for individual fundraising.
“Lots of brigades hold on to their fundraising money until the last week or so, but we wanted to run a transparent campaign. Hopefully it will motivate other brigades to keep pace with us,” he said.
The team’s fundraising process wasn’t very scientific with a lot of shaking red buckets outside shops and markets, said team treasurer Amy Toomath.
For Toomath, it wasn’t unrealistic for the team to aim to raise $50,000.
Setefano said he was proud of the way the Porirua community had rallied behind the cause.
“People here just have a really good understanding of what it is to struggle. We’re a lower socio- economic area and when they hear we’re fundraising for people who are fighting terminal illnesses, many people here can identify with that kind of struggle,” he said.
Setefano said he trained for the climb by practising in carpark buildings with layers of clothes and a backpack on to simulate the heat.
See Team Porirua’s progress at firefightersclimb.org.nz.
A house fire in Porirua overnight may have been intentionally lit.
Fire Service communications shift commander David Meikle said the fire was extinguished within half an hour of the fire trucks arriving at the two-storey Mungavin Ave property after 8.30pm yesterday.
Everyone inside was safely evacuated.
Sergeant Malcolm Lamont said the cause of the fire was being treated as possibly suspicious, as there was no logical way the fire could have started naturally.
The fire was largely confined to a basement, which police secured last night.
Fire communications shift manager Murray Dunbar said the fire caused ”severe damage”.
Firefighters fought a house fire tonight in the basement of a Porirua home.
Fire Service communications shift commander David Meikle said the fire was extinguished within half an hour of the fire engines arriving at the two-storey Mungavin Ave property after 8.30pm.
He had no information about the damage the blaze had done, but said all occupants of the house had been evacuated safely.
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