Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Fire and Emergency New Zealand received calls for 17 incidents between 12 pm and 1pm today, Wednesday 12 August, the fifty-third time the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) has taken strike action.
Of the 17 incidents, eight were in areas impacted by the strike.
Two were medical events that were attended to by Hato Hone St John, as per contingency planning.
One was a minor incident and four were false alarms.
One was for a structure fire in Invercargill that Fire and Emergency was alerted to at 12.42 by the occupant of the house who was trapped inside. Two Assistant District Commanders arrived at 12.48 and 12.50, by which time the occupant had been removed from the house. Volunteer fire crews were deployed from Invercargill, Wallacetown, Winton and Bluff. The first truck arrived at 12.54.
“Fire and Emergency would like to thank members of the public at the scene. Without their help this incident could have ended very differently,” Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler says.
“We have repeatedly warned about the risk the NZPFU is placing the public in every time it goes on strike.
“We acknowledge and appreciate the dedication of the volunteers and Operational Commanders who responded to this incident and the Communication Centre Managers who coordinated the response.
We also recognise the volunteers and staff across the country who have managed the 53 strike responses to date.
“We continue to call on the NZPFU to call off these reckless strikes and have asked it to urgently return to independent facilitation so we can make progress toward a fair and sustainable settlement.
“Fire and Emergency remains committed to achieving a fair and sustainable settlement so we can continue working to keep communities safe.
“As we have unfortunately seen today, emergency responses will be delayed when strike action takes place,” Megan Stiffler says.