Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Fire and Emergency was alerted to 93 weather related 111 calls in Auckland this morning between 6am and 8.30am as result of heavy downpours, after a fairly uneventful night.
Response coordinator District Manager Geoff Purcell says fire crews responded to incidents involving mostly slips and flooding and falling trees affecting homes and commercial properties as well as Auckland’s roads and motorways.
“Our communications centre put our Multiple Incident Procedure in place and we prioritised calls to properties with people in vulnerable circumstances, such as the elderly.
“Crews carried out three weather related rescues during this time. These included a tree down on a house, assisting people to evacuate a flooded house, and a person out of a car in flood waters,” he says.
Four crews also attended a well involved house fire in Papatoetoe at 7.23am. That fire is now out and a fire investigator is at the scene.
Geoff Purcell says Fire and Emergency is continuing to support Auckland Emergency Management in the recovery from last Friday’s event.
“Mostly that involves our USAR teams continuing the Rapid Damage Assessments of properties that were flooded or affected by slips,” he says.
Fire and Emergency will be ready to respond to forecast bad weather moving south to Bay of Plenty and Waikato later today.
