Ageing fleet: Auckland fire truck held together by wire after quick-fix

NZ Herald

09-05-2025

The appliance was taken into the workshop for a permanent repair this morning, the spokesperson said.
Relief vehicles are typically used by Fire and Emergency NZ to replace fire trucks that need a longer term repair.
'Our Auckland high reach aerial relief vehicle has been in the workshop for repair,' the spokesperson said.
'We expect to have this relief aerial appliance returned to the fire station for operational service this afternoon which will return Auckland to its normal number of high reach aerials.'
Campbell said the repair was 'a bit of Kiwi ingenuity' from a mechanic who repaired the truck with number 8 wire, but showed the ongoing issue firefighters were facing with 'old and unreliable trucks'.
Last night, the damaged fire truck responded to multiple jobs, but these were mostly alarm activations, he said.
'If the truck had been called out to the North Shore or South Auckland that wire could have broken and fallen off,' Campbell said.
'It would have meant the truck couldn't be used in a fire.'
Two weeks ago, a pair of firefighters had to be rescued from a North Shore fire after their aerial unit malfunctioned while they were suspended in the air, battling huge flames and toxic smoke.
Campbell said the truck involved in the North Shore fire had been put out of use until an investigation was carried out into the fault.
'We do have five new aerial trucks on the way but they're still potentially six-to-eight months away,' Campbell said.
'Even then that's only going to maintain our status quo, it's not going to help the long-term fleet.'
There needed to be more relief trucks to allow mechanics to carry out the proper preventive maintenance on the current fleet, he said.