Crucial minutes were lost when a Hutt Valley motel caught fire, the firefighters’ union says, when a truck was blocked in by another broken-down and “notoriously unreliable” vehicle.
Fire and Emergency (Fenz) says a fire crew was at the Camellia Court Motel within nine minutes of the first 111 call and there were no concerns with the timeliness of the response.
But according to Professional Firefighters’ Union secretary Wattie Watson, this didn’t tell the whole story.
The situation comes amid ongoing industrial action between the union and Fenz.
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Watson said the Seaview station crew in Lower Hutt had been out on a CPR callout earlier on Friday and noticed electrical burning in “notoriously unreliable” truck on the return, so parked it in the yard and called a mechanic.
MONIQUE FORD/Stuff
A fire broke out in the Camellia Court Motel in laundry room on Friday.
When the call came in about the Lower Hutt motel fire at 6.24pm on Friday, the crew got in another truck but couldn’t get past the one being worked on because the raised cab was in the way while the mechanic worked.
At that moment, the mechanic finished and the crew transferred themselves and gear and went to the fire.
The response would have been even faster as there was a closer station, at Hutt City, which closed in December, Watson said.
She confirmed the Seaview truck was the closest to the fire so would have gone to the initial call, if the truck had been working. This led to a minor delay when a truck had to come from further away, then another three minutes as they changed trucks.
MONIQUE FORD/Stuff
The Camellia Court Motel, where there was a fire on Friday.
“Fenz’s own promotional material to encourage people to get smoke alarms talks about three minutes being a critical timeframe.” The delay could have had “devastating effect”, she said.
Fenz Wellington district manager Nick Pyatt confirmed another truck, from Avalon, arrived at the fire at 6.33pm – nine minutes after the call – while the Seaview truck was dispatched at 6.39pm and arrived at the scene at 6.45pm.
“There are no concerns with the timeliness of our response,” he said.
Nine fire trucks – from Avalon, Remutaka, Seaview, Wellington, Newtown, Johnsonville and Wainuiomata – attended the fire.
“Fire and Emergency has more than 1280 fire appliances and specialist response vehicles around New Zealand. With any large vehicle fleet like ours, from time to time it is expected there may be issues,” Pyatt said.
“That’s why our vehicles are serviced regularly and we have plans in place to cover appliances that may be unavailable for any reason – including being serviced.”
The motel owners declined to comment.
‘Notoriously unreliable’ fire truck delayed motel blaze response, union says & Latest News Update
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