FENZ and the Storm

Fire and Emergency New Zealand - Lower Hutt

Well Neighbours, wasn’t that a storm? And the Fire Fighters of the Lower Hutt Valley were out in the thick of it, with one of the busiest days of the year so far.

The calls we went to covered a range of storm damage: loose commercial building verandas and signage, roofs lifting, flooded houses, flying billboards and other debris, wires down or hanging low, landslides, trees onto homes and cars, and a few building fire alarms thrown in for good measure.

You may have seen through the media or heard from people involved, that in some cases we could not assist with storm damage at all. So we thought we might take this opportunity to explain a little about how we work in situations like yesterday, where events like storms affect a great number of people over a wide area, and the dangerous situations which arise are ongoing.

As Fire And Emergency NZ, we work within the Fire and Emergency NZ Act. This act requires us (amongst other emergencies and fires) to take whatever action is necessary to save lives and property in danger. But we cannot take unnecessary risks with our own safety to prevent further storm damage to buildings. So that is why, in extremely windy circumstances, we sometimes decide that we cannot safely put Firefighters up ladders onto roofs to secure loose roofing iron, signage and the like.

Also, when there is widespread flooding, there is often very little we can do. For example, if storm drains are overloaded and streets become flooded, there is simply nowhere for us to pump the water to. When basements or houses are flooded, if the water we pump out is going to come straight back again, there is nothing we can do. In situations like these, all we can do is offer some advice, and move on to the next call.
Communities also need to be aware that if there is a high number of 111 calls coming into our Communications Centre and there are more requests for assistance than there are crews to attend to them, calls may be prioritised. For example fire calls or medical assistance calls will be attended before storm damage calls. When this happens, all we can ask is that you keep yourselves as safe as you can, and please be patient, we will do our best to get to you as soon as possible.
 
Hopefully that little insight into how we work will answer some questions out there. But if not, feel free to ask questions through Neighbourly and we’ll do our best to answer them. If you’re questions are about fire safety and are of a non-urgent nature, feel free to contact your local Fire Station and talk directly to your local Fire Fighters.

And while we’re all trying to stay warm, if an open fire or woodburner is your choice of heating, remember…
Ashes can take up to five days to cool, always out them into a metal bin when cleaning out your fireplace and pour water over them before disposal.