BATTLING BLAZES ABROAD
By JORDAN H. GREEN Fire fighter Sean Traviss will be battling blazes as usual -- in New Zealand. An Uxbridge resident, Traviss and his family are participating in a year long exchange program which will take them to the southern pacific later this month. “We were thrilled,” said Traviss about finding out he’d been accepted into the exchange program. “They gave us our first choice,” said Lorna Fitzpatrick, Sean’s wife of seven years, who along with 11-month-old daughter Devin, will accompany Traviss on the voyage. Lorna is a part-time nurse with St. Elizabeth Healthcare, a home visitation nursing company. Applicants to the International Fire Service Exchange program choose three countries in order of preference, Traviss’ other picks were Australia and Sweden. The program matches fire fighters based on living acc- ommodations, and similar job descriptions, according to Traviss. “The most important thing, I think, is the accommodations, because you can’t send a single guy down to switch with a family of five,” said Traviss. “And your job has to be in the same area of job description of the fire service.” Another requirement of the program is at least three years of service -- which was easily met -- Traviss has been a fire fighter for almost four years, all of them with the Scarborough fire department. Currently he’s stationed at Scarborough’s station 13, serving the Agincourt area. The Traviss family will find quite a different lifestyle in the city of Wellington, not just because the urban city is the capital of New Zealand, the time difference is 18 hours ahead of our time (16 if you count daylight savings time) and they drive on the other side of the road, but also because their seasons are the reverse of ours -- they experience winter during our summer. “It’ll be winter when we get there, but their winter is a little bit milder than ours,” said Traviss. “I understand it only goes down to around freezing, and goes up to 12, sometimes 15 degrees (Celsius) during the daytime.” Often called ‘Windy Wellington’ because of its frequent high winds, the city of over 360,000 people is located on the north shore of New Zealand. Wellington is about the size of Colorado and boasts about being the most southern capital in the world and having one restaurant for every day of the year. “We’ll travel around the country and see as much as we can,” said Traviss. “We also have a trip scheduled for Australia for two weeks.” Australia lies right across from New Zealand, separated by the Tasman sea. Although neither Fitzpatrick nor Traviss have ever been to this part of the world, Traviss has first hand information on the area. “My grandmother used to live in New Zealand, she said it was the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen, she lived there for years,” said Traviss. Traviss and family aren’t just setting up shop in another country, they will be trading homes and cars with their New Zealand counterparts. Fireperson Phil Hynd along with his wife Fiona and son Callum will move into the Traviss home, while Traviss and family will move into their home. Despite the exchange of home and car, neither family have ever met. “Nope we’ve never met them,” said Traviss. “We’ve talked to them on the phone and we send them back and forth notes by fax.” “They sent us pictures, and we sent them pictures,” eagerly exclaimed Fitzpatrick. Photos of the Hynd family, their beautiful natural wood finished home and their black Toyota 4-Runner show off the tranquil forest setting where the Traviss family will be later this month. The Hynd’s even sent pictures of the fire station where Traviss will be stationed. “It looks like a nice place, certainly a very nice location,” said Traviss. “The house looks a little bit smaller than ours, but we’re not concerned with that.” Still, how does it feel leaving your home and car in the hands of total strangers? “You’ve just got to hope they are going to treat it like you would,” said Fitzpatrick. The two families will have the opportunity to meet in Hawaii -- one of the stop overs amidst the 20 hour flight to New Zealand, the first stop over is in Vancouver. “Their stopping there on the way here, and we’re stopping there too and we’ll meet them there,” said Traviss. Fighting fires in New Zealand offers different challenges from being a fire fighter here. “It’s pretty similar (the type of equipment), but it certainly won’t be the identical equipment,” said Traviss. “We both will be undergoing a period of training, before we actually start riding the truck.” Although Traviss wasn’t sure how long his training will last, his counterpart’s will be about eight days. This will most likely be less than Traviss’ as Hynd will need to brush up on his first aid, as the fire department in Wellington focuses on fire calls -- here fire, ambulance and police are all tied to the 911 emergency system, often handling medical calls as well, according to Traviss. “He (Hynd) says that they are starting to get into it (medical calls) more,” said Traviss. “Whereas we respond to everything on the 911system auto- matically, police, fire and ambulance.” The Traviss family has no expectations about New Zealand, they just plan to enjoy this trip for what it’s worth. “We just expect it to be a once in a lifetime adventure, expect the unexpected,” said Traviss. “I’m really looking forward to it, because I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand,” said Fitzpatrick. “I think it’s a great opportunity, the best way to see a country is to be there for a while and see it that way, instead of just going on vacation.” The Traviss family has lived in Uxbridge for almost a year. In fact, they are leaving for New Zealand on the exact day when they moved up from North York a year ago -- June 21. The Hynd family moves in from Wellington, New Zealand on June 30.
