Staff shortages caused seven minutes delay in response to house fire in Porirua – union

There was a seven-minute delay for enough crews to respond to a house fire in Porirua, the fire union said, and safer personnel could have “prevented further material damage”.

However, Fire and Emergency (FENZ) denies that the workforce is slowing down their response times.

The Firefighters’ Union (NZPFU) has been on partial strike since early June due to wages, working conditions, staff shortages and a lack of mental health services.

Nine vehicles responded to a fire at an address at Molyneux Close at 7 p.m. Friday in Whitby in Porirua and managed to contain it before it spread further. The first fire truck from the Porirua Fire Station arrived within eight minutes, followed seven minutes later by another from Johnsonville.

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Alan Collett, the local union secretary in Wellington who was part of the response, said the Johnsonville truck was called in because only one full-time crew was on standby in Porirua, while the other team was moved from the station to to cover short-manned Wellington. City.

“If they had had two trucks there, they would have had two trucks in that incident after eight minutes,” he said. “Because it didn’t, the second arriving truck from Johnsonville didn’t arrive for fifteen minutes. There is a seven minute delay.”

The station also had to mobilize volunteers from Porirua and Plimmerton for help, but it takes longer for volunteers to “get out”.

Collett also said seven minutes could have meant the fire was under control much more quickly.

“We received reports along the way that the fire was beginning to threaten a neighbor’s house.

“So if you don’t have enough time in the right time frames, the fire can spread to adjacent properties via radiant heat.”

FENZ Assistant Commander Martin Wilby confirmed that one of Porirua’s two trucks had been deployed as cover in Wellington, but said it had no impact on response time to the Whitby fire.

“Our first truck was there in eight minutes,” he said. “In my opinion there was no delay in the arrival of our crews in any way.”

All union members will not perform any of their mandatory administrative duties during the strike, but will continue to respond to all fires, medical incidents and emergency response.