History
The ambulance service was created on 9 November 1927 by the mayor of Wellington, Sir Charles Norwood, and initially operated out of the Old Navals boatshed. The service moved into a purpose built station on Cable Street in 1932, with Lord Bledisloe laying the foundation stone. The board created a long service medal for staff in 1956, for twelve (later ten) years service. In 1994 Prince Charles opened the new ambulance station in Davis Street, Thorndon, after a major fundraising drive.
A WFA officer was accidentally shot in the leg by police during an AOS exercise on 27 July 2002.
On 8 September 2005 an ambulance belonging to the service was stolen during a call-out, the vehicle was found crashed on its side at nearby intersection.
Thieves stole $5,000 worth of equipment and caused $15,000 damage to a WFA vehicle in November 2007.
Read more about this topic: Wellington Free Ambulance
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)