Latest news with #FireandEmergency
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- General
- RNZ News
'Fairy dust' gets in the way, but does not stop chopper rescues
Photo: 123RF Life-saving helicopter flights are being increasingly used in disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle, with Fire and Emergency's annual helicopter bill more than doubling to $7 million. But one of its top aviation roles - Air Division Commander (ADC) - was so vague it amounted to "fairy dust", said Fire and Emergency (FENZ) head of aviation Stephen Bishop in March this year. In emails released under the Official Information Act, Bishop said the ADC role had "no training pathways, qualifications, currency or competency assessment". "You magically achieve it by fairy dust! Yet the function of the role is 100% needed," said Bishop. Another of his memos, written last year, warned that a core gap was "no aviation common operating picture for national emergencies". The demands on aviation coordinators during Cyclone Gabrielle were unprecedented - the most ever seen outside of wartime. More than 3000 flights doing 6000 tasks took place in the hours and days after the storm hit in February 2023. It was highly successful, a top manager said. "Undoubtedly the actions taken by all involved at Bridge Pa [chopper-launching airfield] save many lifes, [sic] countless families and people were rescued from the water and rooftops within the first 24/48 hours," said a review initiated by Bishop in the weeks that followed. "I do remain extremely proud of the team." Pilots and air crew work for private, contracted chopper companies and are separate from FENZ and civil defence aviation personnel. But the stress of the task revealed gaps in the system. The flight coordination teams - drawn from fire, police, civil defence and ambulance - were not properly prepared and did not collaborate well enough. "Lots of intel flights flown, but no one on the ground to collate and feed back," said the review, adding that data overload was another problem. There were also psychological health and well-being issues that needed to be worked on. "This was a traumatic exposure event with mass casualties, and in the early stages preparing for significant numbers of fatalities, the team experienced having to make life/death decisions on who they rescued first." An email referring to a review by USAID of the help it gave New Zealand in the cyclone said an observation was "the coordination of heli bases [was] not done well". All this could be seen in emails and reports newly released under the OIA. FENZ blanked out some parts relating to what did not work well - while keeping in all that did work - and Bishop's "wish list". The agency is New Zealand's prime responder to storms, and told RNZ it had helped other agencies make improvements in the past 18 months, such as with air safety training and coordination. But it did not provide documentation to back that up. One problem with Cyclone Gabrielle was a concern that so many choppers going up and down might hit each other. The "biggest challenge was coordination and collaboration between multiple agencies and need to deconflict airspace", though there were no significant near-misses, the review said. The large number of flights landed FENZ with a $3.2m bill in 2022-23. A year later, the bill had risen to nearly $6m and is now more than $7m. Total annual hours of emergency chopper use have risen from 966 to 1920. But Bishop in mid-2024 warned that FENZ had known for a long time that aviation was a "high risk" for it. While a lot of that was dealt with after the Tasman fires in 2019, "until now we have not been able to look at the training we provide our people". They were not trained to know the risks they faced. This is similar to the warning FENZ got about lack of landslide training, after two volunteer fire-fighters died at Muriwai during the cyclone. "Wrong people been given the wrong level of training at the wrong point in their pathway," Bishop said. "Current training for basic aircraft safety awareness is inconsistent. No training provided for stations, brigades who regularly use aircraft for fire fighting, outer island response" and road crashes. Another report said FENZ and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) were "working hard, as resources allow, to champion and implement a more strategic and unified approach to aviation response across the country". Training, and contracts with private chopper companies were being improved. "It is not a quick fix and will take some time and as with all aspects require additional resources," a group manager wrote in January 2024. "We have some gaps around the country - Auckland, Northland, South Canterbury are my main areas of concern." The agency told RNZ its aviation specialists showed "bravery and dedication" in Gabrielle's extreme conditions. Its operational improvements since the start of last year included better safety awareness and training; more electronic datakeeping and invoicing; and a strengthened inter-agency CatPlan (Catastrophic Planning). "This has a focus on shared air operations planning and resource alignment across large-scale emergencies to support a more unified national response and clearer operational roles between agencies," it said in a statement this week. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Emergency services responding to helicopter crash in Bay of Plenty
Photo: 123RF Emergency services are at the scene of a helicopter incident in Bay of Plenty. St John said it was notified of an aviation incident in Matatā at about 3.15pm Sunday. Two ambulances, two rapid response units, two helicopters and one manager attended the scene, although St John was yet to confirm the status of the patients. St John crews remain on scene, with one fire service appliance assisting. Fire and Emergency said nobody was trapped during the incident. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Climate
- News.com.au
Alert issued for ‘fast-moving wildfire' in Barkly, south of Tennant Creek
A 'fast-moving wildfire' south of the Barkly capital is 'spreading rapidly and poses potential threat' to the public and landowners, authorities warn. The fire was reported south of Tennant Creek near Gosse River Rd just after lunchtime on Friday – the same day a 24hr fire ban had been declared. NT Fire and Emergency services issued an alert for the fire Friday afternoon, describing the blaze as 'fast moving' and as 'spreading rapidly and poses potential threat to the surrounding areas and communities'. 'Crews are currently responding, but the speed and intensity of the fire is being exacerbated by severe weather conditions forecast to persist through to Saturday, 26 July,' the alert states. A 24 hour fire ban was enacted from midnight, Friday July 25, due to heightened weather conditions. The fire ban covers the Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, and the surrounding regions. 'The Fire Danger Rating (FDR) for the Barkly and Central Australian regions is High with a heightened risk of dangerous and fast moving fire,' the alert states. 'Winds are expected to gust to gale and strong-gale force, with some areas experiencing gusts in excess of 90 km/h. 'Potential dry lightning activity and volatile wind patterns are anticipated throughout the day, further increasing the risk of ignition and dangerous fire behaviour.' Members of the public are urged to avoid the area of the blaze and stay up to date via the Bushfires NT Facebook page, the NT Fire Incident Map, or the Secure NT website. 'For the safety of firefighting crews and other vehicles, drivers in the area are urged to slow down, turn on headlights and drive safely for the conditions,' the alert states. No fuel reduction burnings are to be attempted during the fire ban period, the alert states.
Scoop
6 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Fire And Emergency New Zealand Offers Firefighters A 5.1 Percent Pay Increase
Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union have been negotiating a collective employment agreement for career firefighters since 16 July 2024. Deputy Chief Executive Service Delivery Operations/Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler says Fire and Emergency has offered the Union a 5.1 percent pay increase over the next three years, as well as increases to some allowances. "We consider the offer is fair, balances cost of living pressures being faced by individuals alongside fiscal pressures faced by Fire and Emergency and is consistent with the Government Workforce Policy Statement." Megan Stiffler says Fire and Emergency has invested significantly in its people and its resources for the safety of communities since it was established in 2017. "The previous collective employment agreement settlement in 2022 provided a cumulative wage increase of up to 24 percent over a three-year period for our career firefighters." "Fire and Emergency has also been investing in replacing our fleet, with 317 trucks replaced since 2017 and another 70 on order. We are currently spending over $20 million per year on replacement trucks. There is also a significant programme of station upgrades underway, as well as investment in training," she says. "In 2023/24 most career firefighters earned over $100,000 per year, including overtime and allowances. The turnover rate for our career firefighters was just 3.6 percent last year, and the average length of service was 17 years. We work constantly with our people to ensure we are an employer of choice." "Our firefighters are highly trained and deeply committed to serving their communities and we are investing in our people and our resources, to support them. They do an incredible job keeping New Zealanders safe."
1News
14-07-2025
- Climate
- 1News
More slip troubles in Muriwai: 'We need to know how did this happen'
A landslip in Auckland's west coast settlement of Muriwai has residents reliving the devastating landslides of two years ago. Muriwai was hit badly during the 2023 Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, with large slips making some areas unliveable. The community was struck by another slip at the weekend on Motutara Rd. Fire and Emergency evacuated properties in the immediate area after Saturday's slip as a precaution. No one was injured, but the slip restricted the roads into town to one lane, and one resident says it has stirred bad memories. ADVERTISEMENT Longtime Muriwai resident Delwyn Shepherd told RNZ that the storms kept the community on edge. "I think for everyone in the community, whether you were part of the landslide zones one to five, or whether you just live within the community, there is a sense of anticipation, and definitely stress," she said. "I think you relive the event mentally, even though you know that you've moved forward." She wanted Auckland Council to do better with how it used data to warn west coast residents ahead of dangerous weather events. "As a local, I'm really disappointed, because our council is just reactive, they're not being proactive," Shepherd said. "There are plenty of smart people with good knowledge that could stop all these triggering events for people and their well-being." The latest landslip to hit Muriwai. (Source: ADVERTISEMENT Shepherd said the storms left Muriwai with an uncertain future. "There'll be more and more people, probably in the retired age, that no longer want the stress of it, that may end up selling before they intended to sell and move to a place that is not in any sort of landslide, hazard, or flooding zone." Another resident Clare Bradley said the weekend's slip happened on land that was categorised as safe to live on. "I guess the question that is upper-most in most people's minds is - the family who live in this property were thankfully away, but their home is damaged, and is the extent of the damage sufficient to have made it unsafe for them to have been living there?" she asked. "I guess that's a question that the council geo-tech team, and GHD who did the study report, will have to address to allay fears in the community that the rest of us who are living, and working, and spending our time in our category one homes are safe in the event of a future severe weather event." She said there were questions that needed answering. "We need to know how did this happen, was it avoidable, is there anything we should be doing or anything that council should be doing in order to improve stormwater runoff?" ADVERTISEMENT Auckland Council chief engineer Ross Roberts told Midday Report they were continuing their response from the 2023 storms, including moving residents out of worst-affected areas. "Along with that comes other community planning that's going on, and we're looking at what we can do in terms of infrastructure as well, but community planning and ensure that people have the understanding of the hazards and the ability to manage them is really what makes the difference here," he said. Auckland Council said the closed lane on Motutara Rd would reopen when it was determined safe to do so and once geotechnical assessments were completed.
