Latest news with #FENZ
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- General
- RNZ News
'Fairy dust' gets in the way, but does not stop chopper rescues
Photo: 123RF Life-saving helicopter flights are being increasingly used in disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle, with Fire and Emergency's annual helicopter bill more than doubling to $7 million. But one of its top aviation roles - Air Division Commander (ADC) - was so vague it amounted to "fairy dust", said Fire and Emergency (FENZ) head of aviation Stephen Bishop in March this year. In emails released under the Official Information Act, Bishop said the ADC role had "no training pathways, qualifications, currency or competency assessment". "You magically achieve it by fairy dust! Yet the function of the role is 100% needed," said Bishop. Another of his memos, written last year, warned that a core gap was "no aviation common operating picture for national emergencies". The demands on aviation coordinators during Cyclone Gabrielle were unprecedented - the most ever seen outside of wartime. More than 3000 flights doing 6000 tasks took place in the hours and days after the storm hit in February 2023. It was highly successful, a top manager said. "Undoubtedly the actions taken by all involved at Bridge Pa [chopper-launching airfield] save many lifes, [sic] countless families and people were rescued from the water and rooftops within the first 24/48 hours," said a review initiated by Bishop in the weeks that followed. "I do remain extremely proud of the team." Pilots and air crew work for private, contracted chopper companies and are separate from FENZ and civil defence aviation personnel. But the stress of the task revealed gaps in the system. The flight coordination teams - drawn from fire, police, civil defence and ambulance - were not properly prepared and did not collaborate well enough. "Lots of intel flights flown, but no one on the ground to collate and feed back," said the review, adding that data overload was another problem. There were also psychological health and well-being issues that needed to be worked on. "This was a traumatic exposure event with mass casualties, and in the early stages preparing for significant numbers of fatalities, the team experienced having to make life/death decisions on who they rescued first." An email referring to a review by USAID of the help it gave New Zealand in the cyclone said an observation was "the coordination of heli bases [was] not done well". All this could be seen in emails and reports newly released under the OIA. FENZ blanked out some parts relating to what did not work well - while keeping in all that did work - and Bishop's "wish list". The agency is New Zealand's prime responder to storms, and told RNZ it had helped other agencies make improvements in the past 18 months, such as with air safety training and coordination. But it did not provide documentation to back that up. One problem with Cyclone Gabrielle was a concern that so many choppers going up and down might hit each other. The "biggest challenge was coordination and collaboration between multiple agencies and need to deconflict airspace", though there were no significant near-misses, the review said. The large number of flights landed FENZ with a $3.2m bill in 2022-23. A year later, the bill had risen to nearly $6m and is now more than $7m. Total annual hours of emergency chopper use have risen from 966 to 1920. But Bishop in mid-2024 warned that FENZ had known for a long time that aviation was a "high risk" for it. While a lot of that was dealt with after the Tasman fires in 2019, "until now we have not been able to look at the training we provide our people". They were not trained to know the risks they faced. This is similar to the warning FENZ got about lack of landslide training, after two volunteer fire-fighters died at Muriwai during the cyclone. "Wrong people been given the wrong level of training at the wrong point in their pathway," Bishop said. "Current training for basic aircraft safety awareness is inconsistent. No training provided for stations, brigades who regularly use aircraft for fire fighting, outer island response" and road crashes. Another report said FENZ and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) were "working hard, as resources allow, to champion and implement a more strategic and unified approach to aviation response across the country". Training, and contracts with private chopper companies were being improved. "It is not a quick fix and will take some time and as with all aspects require additional resources," a group manager wrote in January 2024. "We have some gaps around the country - Auckland, Northland, South Canterbury are my main areas of concern." The agency told RNZ its aviation specialists showed "bravery and dedication" in Gabrielle's extreme conditions. Its operational improvements since the start of last year included better safety awareness and training; more electronic datakeeping and invoicing; and a strengthened inter-agency CatPlan (Catastrophic Planning). "This has a focus on shared air operations planning and resource alignment across large-scale emergencies to support a more unified national response and clearer operational roles between agencies," it said in a statement this week. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Canterbury scrub fire contained by FENZ
Fire and Emergency says at 2am on Sunday the fire was 300 by 50 square metres. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Firefighters have contained a large scrub fire near the Canterbury town of Sheffield. Fire and Emergency (FENZ) was called to the blaze at Waimakariri riverbank, near the Gorge Bridge, at 9pm on Saturday. Incident Controller Graeme Knight said the fire was about 60ha in size and had burnt through gorse, broom and pine trees. Three helicopters had been assisting firefighters on Sunday morning. A cause has not yet been determined but a fire investigator has been notified. Police were also investigating a flurry of fires in other parts of the district on Sunday morning, including Darfield and Rolleston, all of which are being deemed suspicious. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Three helicopters fight vegetation blaze in Sheffield, Canterbury
Fire and Emergency says at 2am on Sunday the fire was 300 by 50 square metres. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Three helicopters are being brought in to fight a vegetation fire near the small Canterbury town of Sheffield. Fire and Emergency (FENZ) was called to the blaze at Waimakariri riverbank, near the Gorge Bridge, at 9pm on Saturday. Due to its location and it burning through gorse, it was too dangerous to fight the blaze on Saturday. FENZ could not say how big the fire was, but at 2am on Sunday it was 300 by 50 square metres. A spokesperson said three helicopters and more firefighters would go to the scene at sunrise on Sunday to fight the blaze. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
The Panel with Jennie Moreton and Steve McCabe Part 1
Tonight on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Jennie Moreton and Steve McCabe. Starting off, the Panel hears how FENZ thinks the cost of living may be to blame for a high number of deaths caused by house fires - high prices forcing people to try and heat their home with the gas barbeques. They also discuss the TikTok video made by an Australian living in Wellington who claims it's "cold, dark, gloomy and depressing" and Wellingtonians as "unmotivated" with "no aspiration". To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
5 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Surge in house fire deaths over alternative heating methods
Barbecues used indoors can spark fires. Photo: 123RF Fire and Emergency (FENZ) says the cost of living could be to blame for the highest number of house fire fatalities in a decade. According to FENZ, in the past 12 months 17 people have died in avoidable house fires. In a typical year there were about 13 fatalities. FENZ reduction and investigations manager Pete Gallagher said in some cases, fires had been sparked by people using barbecues to heat their homes. "One of the things we're concerned about is people using non-traditional heating devices as a way of heating their homes," he told RNZ's Midday Report . "In order to reduce the cost of living and reduce their use of electricity, they're resorting to using items we wouldn't normally see in a household setting, things like barbecues being brought inside and used as a heating device in the home." He estimated roughly four or five fatal house fires in the past year were caused by people taking desperate measures to keep themselves warm. "We still see people utilising industrial heaters in a domestic home, and obviously they're a very powerful heater designed to heat large warehouses, and we saw some tragedy result in the use of one of those last year." Gallagher said people needed to think about safety when heating their homes. He said there were two incidents in the past year where candles caused a fire, which resulted in death. Gallagher said this past year's statistics were disappointing, as house fire fatalities had previously been on the decline. "The population has been doing a great job at reducing the number of deaths from house fires. I'd like to think this is just a blip in our statistics. But it looks to be a trend we need to get on top of because we don't want to get back to the days of the 1970s and 1980s, where a large number of New Zealanders were dying in house fires." He attributed financial pressures and people not giving proper attention to their electrical devices to the number of deaths "skyrocketing back up". "We're seeing wider use of electrical devices, there are more things people plug in or turn on in their homes and sometimes without the necessary care and attention. "But certainly the cost of living, we see that driving the way people are operating these days, and that's definitely impacting our fire statistics. 'It's a concern that people are putting themselves at risk." Gallagher said with the country experiencing colder days recently, it was timely for people to make sure they were taking a safety approach to staying warm. "We have this phrase, the 'heater metre'. We want everyone to be aware that a heating device is just as effective when it's a metre away. "When drying clothes, they don't need to be on top of the heater; they can be a metre away." He said two-thirds of the fire fatalities in the past year happened in homes while people were sleeping. "The importance of a smoke alarm cannot be overlooked. It's key for that early warning, and once it activates, it's important to have a plan to get out and stay out of the house." Fire statistics showed that those aged 65 and over, in particular, were at greater risk, Gallagher said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
