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Home Fire Safety Checks

Representatives of the NZPFU met with National Commander Mike Hall to discuss concerns regarding the implementation of the 0800 home fire safety program. The union’s representatives watched the information DVD and examined the delivery materials developed to support the program.

The union acknowledged that the proposed program was essentially a more structured approach to what has been a routine task for fire fighters for many years.

The National Commander acknowledged that the program could have been introduced in a more structured manner which would have pre-empted most of the concerns subsequently raised.

The Union and the National Commander have now agreed that the program will proceed, starting with an understanding of the program and process via the supplied DVD.

There are no issues with the right to be there given that entry into any house is by direct invitation. There are no issues with liability as there is protection under our Act for advice given in good faith (e.g. note there have been no liability problems with fires, some fatal, in premises when NZFS has previously fitted smoke alarms). There is no intent to look for, and report back on issues outside NZFS normal concerns.

The program will be reviewed according to constructive feedback in 6 months.

• Download Joint NZPFU & NZFS Statement

Reduced Fire Service response

initially sent to University blaze

On the 29th April 2010 the New Zealand Fire Service reduced responses of fire appliances and Firefighters to many Sprinklered Buildings throughout NZ, their justification for doing so was Sprinklered Buildings don’t pose any great risks to those living, working in them or to Firefighters called in the event of fire.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union and operational Firefighters strongly opposed this move labelling it arrogant, short sighted and dangerous.

It was always going to be a matter of when, not if, this new Fire Service policy would endanger the lives of the public and Firefighters alike and put at greater risk those properties.

At today’s incident only 2 fire appliances initially responded with 8 Firefighters (down from 4 fire appliances plus 2 aerial appliances 2 months ago) as per the new Fire Service instruction. On arrival at the incident a fire was discovered, the incident was made up to a 2nd alarm and then a 3rd alarm calling for more manpower.

This fire was on the 8th floor of a student accommodation building, the sprinkler system failed to operate, this placed any persons in this building at significant risk.

There were some considerable delays in getting sufficient numbers of Firefighters to the scene to deal with this fire as required by various other Fire Service procedures.

Firefighters extinguished the fire with low pressure hose.

At this fire people were on the 9th & 10th floors above the fire.

It is very fortunate that this is holiday time at the University otherwise we could have easily being looking at a tragedy.

Issues with the Fire Service policy which the NZPFU has raised with them was it was implemented without consultation with operational Firefighters, the risk assessments of sprinklered buildings as required by the policy were in most cases not carried out, the resulting change in policy was in many places including Auckland a blanket reduction in the response of fire appliances to such buildings.

Benefits the Fire Service claimed were sending less fire appliances would result in less traffic congestion and less disruption to local business. It also was designed to reduce the risk of traffic incidents enroute to these buildings, despite the NZPFU asking for proof, no evidence was ever provided by the NZFS to substantiate these were genuine issues.

Even if there has been a fire in a sprinklered building and it is controlled there is still the very real risk of issues surrounding huge volumes of smoke (as occurred in today’s fire) which kills people, huge amounts of water damage from the operating sprinkler/s, these issues themselves dictate that in many buildings the initial response of 2 fire appliances and 8 Firefighters won’t be enough.

The Fire Service claim Firefighters arriving on a scene finding a fire can call for more resources, that’s true but in many cases there will be significant delays in getting them there, at least if they are responding on the initial alarm they will be well enroute if a fire is found.

There are many more worrying aspects to this policy than the operation of a sprinkler, the reduced responses apply to buildings where a smoke detector may have detected a fire but there is a sprinkler system in the building, in this scenario the Fire Service will still only send 2 fire appliances, this afternoons fire is a perfect example of the application of a flawed policy, the Fire Service were alerted to this fire by the operation of a manual call point.

The NZPFU is aware of another incident in a Auckland Queen Street building in the early hours of this morning which had similar disturbing circumstances, again on the 8th floor, people sleeping in the building and the sprinkler system did not operate. It was only through the local knowledge of the Officer in Charge that enough Firefighters were subsequently dispatched to provide an adequate response to deal with this fire, again significant delays were experienced in firefighting operations.

The outcome is this Fire Service policy is a failure, it is dangerous for the public and it is dangerous for Firefighters.

This policy delays the response of sufficient numbers of Firefighters to deal with such fires quickly and safely.

The NZPFU will not be surprised if the Fire Service take no action to ensure Firefighters and the NZPFU’s concerns are addressed after these incidents, this will further demonstrate the contempt they have for the public and Firefighters alike.

This contempt has been demonstrated towards Firefighters since the introduction of this policy where our members have increased responses to certain incidents based on their operational experience, this has resulted in many Officers being sent letters from Management asking them to explain the deviation from the policy threatening that if breaches of policy continue the Officers will be formally disciplined, this is the approach by Management towards our members who are attempting to ensure public and Firefighter safety is maintained.

The NZPFU are aware that the Fire Service are confidentially reviewing their new policy and reduced fire appliance responses to hospitals and rest homes, hopefully a commonsense approach will be taken and fire appliance responses will be reinstated to that prior 29th April.

In an interview on Radio Live, dated 21st May NZFS Assistant National Commander Bill Butzbach in response to this question “Can you guarantee the fire service won’t be compromised by this move?” replied ABSOLUTELY.

Firefighters know that’s not the case, it has proven itself.

The NZPFU again require that ours and the concerns of our members be addressed and that fire appliance responses to sprinklered buildings be reinstated to the levels prior to 29th April 2010 and to enter into meaningful consultation with the NZPFU and Firefighters to determine what their operational requirements are to initially deal with incidents in any given building. This has been made that much more difficult when our representatives in Auckland have to resort to using the Official Information Act in an attempt to determine what those affected buildings are prior to them arriving at an incident and not having enough resources.

It’s unfair that the public get to pay the price of such a backwards dangerous Fire Service policy, Firefighters are confident that’s not what they want from their Fire Service.

Firefighters don’t want to be in the position down the track of saying “told you so” after the event.

Media statement from Fire Service

Auckland Region Commander Butt

The Fire Service is concerned at the misinformation being promoted by the NZ Professional Firefighters Union about the new national policy to send two appliances to investigate an automatic alarm in low risk buildings with sprinklers installed.

In almost all cases, these alarms are false alarms.

The policy introduced in April instructs dispatchers to send two pumps and eight firefighters to investigate the first alarm - as was already happening in over half of the country’s sprinklered buildings. More appliances are sent immediately if there is confirmation of an actual fire.

The policy reflects the low level of risk and ensures that we have more resources available to respond to genuine emergencies which happen while we are also attending a false alarm.

Yesterday’s responses to two small fires in Auckland were handled exactly as the policy intended. There are no public safety issues.

Two appliances went to investigate, found signs of smoke and more appliances were called for immediately.

In both cases, the fires were still too small to trigger the sprinklers - one was in a laundry basket the other was a mattress on fire. In both cases the two appliances sent were more than capable of dealing with the initial incident and crews followed the policy by calling for back up from other appliances as per our response for a confirmed fire.

History of NZ Fire Fighter Unions

Terry Scott former South Island Branch President (ret) and life member of the NZPFU is embarking on writing the History of New Zealand Fire Fighter Unions. He is doing it in conjunction with Jacki Breen an archaeologist and anthropologist with a specialty in historical research. She is also a volunteer Firefighter of some years so has an understanding of New Zealand Firefighting.

It is intended to cover the early years of industrial Unions in the Fire Brigades through the early 19th century through to today modern Union.

To achieve that, it will be necessary for them have access to as many records as possible.

Many records are held in various Government and private archives.

It is intended to conduct a number of interviews as well as research documents held by the Union and in various archive establishments.

A questionnaire is being developed to enable members current and past to express their views and have their memories and recollections recorded. There will also be one for non Union Members who had involvement in the Fire Service.

Any paper held in private collections will be returned to its owner.

Terry would appreciate if members who are able to (a) notify interested parties of this request and (b) indicate if they are available themselves.

A series of methods to gather information will be used - e.g. phone interview, e-mail, making available historical documents and where possible face to face interviews.

If you have any contribution to make, Terry would be pleased for members and ex-members to contact him direct via email  or alternatively phone 03 312 14 15 or text 027 2206464 with your land line number and he will make a time to speak to you.

Te Atatu and Otara Station

Vacancies

The Auckland Local Committee have for some considerable time now been in discussions with the Auckland management of the Fire Service regarding the staffing of new stations at Te Atatu. More recently these discussions have included the staffing at Otara and the deployment of the new Hazmat/Command appliances. These meetings have also included the attendance of the Union Council at various times.

There were some basic agreements made during this process, although the finalization of the matter as a whole has still not been agreed. There are still many matters that the Union and the management of the Fire Service have to come to some sort of agreement on. These include but are not restricted to, whether or not the Type 4 Bronto appliance should be placed at Te Atatu and where and why Hazmat/Command vehicles should be stationed.

The Fire Service have, as Auckland members will know, advertised some positions at both Te Atatu and Otara that will mean that firefighters from both Avondale and City Stations could be severely disadvantaged.

The Auckland Local Committee have met and further discussed this matter. They have resolved and the Union’s National Committee agrees to the following two resolutions.

“No member of the Auckland Local shall apply for any vacancy at Te Atatu or Otara Stations, and any members who have already applied shall forthwith withdraw those applications.”

Furthermore, until some further discussion around the siting and use of the two Hazmat/Command vehicles takes place:

“No member of the Auckland Local shall either train or be trained in the use of the Hazmat/Command Vehicles, and no members shall use or be trained on, any equipment provided for these vehicles.”

Members are asked to comply with these instructions and thereby give the Union time to seek some agreement with the employer on these very important matters.

Clarification

NTM No. 16 means that ALL Union members throughout the country should NOT apply for the positions as gazette at Te Atatu and Otara.