Latest news with #FireandEmergency
NZ Herald
19 hours ago
- Climate
- NZ Herald
Live updates: Hundreds without power across North Island, South Island road snowfall warnings, Taupō flood risk over
Civil Defence is preparing Taupō residents for evacuation because of flooding risks from river flow. Fire and Emergency has had about 60 callouts in Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato. Cold weather follows the wild weather, with snow isolating the Mackenzie Country and temperatures dropping. There has been relief for Taupō residents as the Tauranga-Taupō River river reached its peak and the risk of evacuations subsides. Civil Defence has been knocking on doors in the area, preparing people, as flooding from heavy rain overnight caused the river to swell to breaking point. The deluge across the North Island that began on Wednesday afternoon has seen Fire and Emergency in the upper North Island race to pick up trees off powerlines and homes, and rescue vehicles from floodwaters. Heavy rain and thunderstorms lashed much of the upper North Island overnight but the MetService rain radar shows the worst of the thunderstorms have moved to the west of the country. Taupō's Civil Defence public information officer said 70 properties were at risk of being flooded when the Tauranga-Taupō River flow reached their lakefront settlement near Tuki St. Land Search and Rescue has been knocking and readying people in the vicinity to evacuate. 'The river has already peaked, we are just waiting to see what that impact is for the homes down the river,' Taupō's Civil Defence public information officer said. 'We are telling people to prepare.' Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Fire and Emergency said they had 60 callouts overnight in the Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato, mostly for trees coming down on houses, onto powerlines and flooding. He said the flooding was primarily in Auckland and concentrated between 9pm and 10pm. In Wellington, Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Belinda Beets said the service was called to Sunhaven Drive just after 2am after reports that part of a roof had landed on another home. She said there were no reports of injuries and while the occupants had found somewhere else to stay tonight, their roof had been secured using wire. Beets said that just after 5am crews were also called to Carterton after reports that strong gales were blowing flashings off a dairy and another home. She said there had been a 'steady stream' of calls in Bay of Plenty and Waikato. South Island regions isolated by snowfall However, as the wild weather leaves, a cold snap has followed in its wake. Snow isolated areas of the Mackenzie Country this morning, with State Highway 80 from Lake Pūkaki to Aoraki/Mt Cook and SH8 Lake Pūkaki to Fairlie closed after overnight falls. The roads reopened at 7.45am. Most heavy rain and wind watches and warnings are forecast to expire by late morning as the rain moves off New Zealand. MetService forecaster John Law told the Herald that today would be a 'slightly quieter day'. It was the warmest times, it was the coldest times. A Tale of Two Islands. — NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) June 4, 2025 'It will be pretty windy for places like Wellington, Wairarapa and even Auckland,' he said. 'It will be a windy start to the day, but not as windy as yesterday.' Law said the southwesterlies would make for a cold day. According to MetService, Auckland and Hamilton are forecast to reach a high of 19C today. Tauranga is set to peak at 20C while Napier is forecast to reach 22C. However, temperatures are forecast to plummet in the South Island, with Christchurch reaching a high of 10C and a low of -1C and Queenstown hitting a high of 8C and a low of -2C. A snowfall warning is forecast to come into force for Milford Rd (SH94) from 11am to 8pm. 'Two to 5cm of snow may accumulate above 600m on the road with less down to 400m.' Meanwhile, a heavy swell warning is in place for Kāpiti-Porirua Coast to Cape Terawhiti until 3pm. Waves are forecast to reach 3m in the morning, lowering to 1m in the afternoon. Law said temperatures were forecast to keep falling as New Zealand heads into the weekend. 'For most of us, as we head towards the weekend, it's definitely going to feel like June,' he said. 'Places like Wānaka, Alexandra [will have] daytime highs of 3C or 4C and nighttime lows down below freezing.'
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- NZ Herald
Body found beside burnt-out car in Muirwai, police investigating
Police are in attendance at a car fire in Muriwai this morning. Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen. Police are in attendance at a car fire in Muriwai this morning. A body has been found next to a burned-out car in Muriwai. Police say they are still trying to piece together the circumstances of the death after the discovery at the popular west Auckland beach by fire crews. A police spokesperson said they were called to the scene by Fire and Emergency after the ire on Jack Butt Lane at 8.34am. 'The fire has been extinguished and a person's body has been located next to the vehicle.
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- General
- NZ Herald
Popular Greerton restaurant catches fire
Fire and Emergency Services respond to a fire at Castle 91 Restaurant and Takeaway on Cameron Rd, Greerton. Photo/Supplied. 'Much-loved' Tauranga Indian restaurant Castle 91 caught fire this afternoon. Firefighters were called to the Greerton Village restaurant today at 3.09pm, Fire and Emergency NZ Northern shift manager Michael Anderson said. He said the Fire and Emergency received multiple calls about a fire in a building used as a
Scoop
4 days ago
- General
- Scoop
Fire And Emergency King's Birthday Honours Recipients Congratulated
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Board Chair Rebecca Keoghan has congratulated four Fire and Emergency personnel from Oxford, Fox Glacier, Matatā and Taihape who have been recognised in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours List released today. "These awards recognise the outstanding contributions that our people have made to Fire and Emergency, Search and Rescue and their local communities over many years," Rebecca Keoghan says. The recipients are: Ronald (Ron) Ealam (Oxford) - Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Search and Rescue Marius Bron (Fox Glacier) - King's Service Medal (KSM) for services to Search and Rescue and the community Gavin Dennis (Matatā) - King's Service Medal (KSM) for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the community Alan (Curly) Troon (Taihape) - King's Service Medal (KSM) for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand. 'We are all incredibly proud of this fantastic achievement," Rebecca Keoghan says. "On behalf of Fire and Emergency, thank you for your ongoing dedication to our organisation and your communities." Additional information: Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) Ronald Bruce (Ron) Ealam Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Search and Rescue Mr Ron Ealam has been contributing to Land Search and Rescue for more than 50 years. Mr Ealam has been a member of the Oxford Fire Brigade since 1996. He has contributed 25 years of service to the New Zealand Land Search and Rescue Dogs, helping train dogs. He has been a qualified national trainer and assessor for Search Dogs for more than ten years, specialising in border collies, attending several annual dog training camps each year. He helped develop the official New Zealand Land Search and Rescue Search Dogs Training Pathway and Assessments in 2009, which forms the basis of the Search Dogs pathways today. He has been a member of the Oxford Land Search and Rescue, contributing to local search and rescue meetings and training nights, and training dogs, which takes at least two years before they become operational. During the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, he was part of the initial response in the first three days in the Redcliff area and helped with welfare and house checks. He has been the elected Group Chair for Oxford Land Search and Rescue for more than 10 years. Mr Ealam received the New Zealand Search and Rescue Excellence award in 2023 for his contributions. King's Service Medal (KSM) Marius Jean Bron King's Service Medal (KSM) for services to Search and Rescue and the community Mr Marius Bron has served the Fox Glacier community in various volunteer emergency service roles since 1999. On a voluntary basis Mr Bron leads the local branches of South Westland Land Search and Rescue Group, the Civil Defence service and the Community Committee. He also volunteers for the Department of Conservation, assisting in the management of alpine huts in the area. He works to ensure these huts are fit for use by both domestic and international visitors. He is also a local volunteer firefighter for Fire and Emergency New Zealand and a St John Ambulance first responder. The skills he has gained from these various roles make him a central figure in the Fox Glacier community. He and his team have received national recognition for their search and rescue efforts, including the successful rescue of two climbers on Mt Rolleston and the successful overnight rescue of an injured person on a glacier. He was involved in the creation of important facilities for the Fox Glacier community, including the Emergency Services Centre and the Community Centre. His efforts included driving the concept stage, fundraising and project managing. In addition to his volunteer work, Mr Bron is Operations Manager at Fox Glacier Guiding, which brings tourist business to the community. Gavin Lloyd Dennis, JP King's Service Medal (KSM) for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the community Mr Gavin Dennis has served the Matatā community for close to 40 years. Mr Dennis is currently Chief Fire Officer of the Matatā Volunteer Fire Brigade, having held various ranks since joining in 1987. While Deputy Chief Fire Officer, he played a key role in the response to major flood events in 2005, with the town cut off for several days. He instigated the Matatā Volunteer Fire Brigade's Cadet Programme in 2014, for young people aged 15 to 16 to join the brigade to gain experience and life skills. The programme has been successful in recruiting these young people as volunteer recruit firefighters when eligible, forming a large part of the brigade's membership over the past 10 years. He was a member of the Rangitaiki Community Board from 2007 to 2019, serving four years as Deputy Chairperson, and helped oversee the town's recovery efforts following the 2017 Edgecumbe flood event. He has served on the Boards of Trustees of Matatā Public School and Trident High School, including holding several offices across the period 1993 to 2010. He has chaired the Matatā Residents Association and the Matatā Community Resource Centre. Mr Dennis was elected to the Whakatāne District Council in 2019. Alan Rex (Curly) Troon King's Service Medal (KSM) for services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand Mr Alan "Curly" Troon is a Life Member of the Taihape Volunteer Fire Brigade and has helped to promote Taihape through gumboot throwing. Mr Troon joined the Taihape Volunteer Fire Brigade in 1991 and has been Chief Fire Officer since 2009, being awarded Life Membership in 2022. He oversaw the rebuild of the new Taihape Fire Station which opened in 2022. He has worked for Rangitikei County Council and has held many volunteer roles within the community, including past President of the Taihape Tennis Association and Taihape Kindergarten Committee and is the current President of the New Zealand Boot Throwing Association (NZBTA). In the mid-1980s, he became a champion thrower in Taihape's annual Gumboot Day and has since promoted the sport with his wife. They have taken Taihape to world competitions. In 2021 he won the Toyota Lifetime Legacy Award from NZBTA as part of the Norwood Rural Sports Award. He is a past member of the Taihape St John Area Committee and has driven the Taihape ambulance when the team is short staffed. Mr Troon has been coaching young people at the Taihape Badminton Club since 2023.
NZ Herald
28-05-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Fires linked to lithium batteries have doubled. Why the delay in dealing with them?
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but speculation from a Fire and Emergency staff member was the culprit could be lithium-ion batteries. Two weeks later, a fire broke out in a scrapyard in the Auckland suburb of Ōtara. Again, lithium-ion batteries were suspected. Until investigations are complete, we can't say for sure lithium-ion batteries caused the blazes. However, data collated by Fire and Emergency New Zealand ,suggests the number of fires caused by these have more than doubled since 2020 growing from 51 in 2020 to 120 in 2024. So far this year, 42 fires have been related to batteries. The increase is because of the proliferation of the batteries, which are often found in devices that can be charged, such as mobile phones and laptops. They are also used in power banks, vapes, e-scooters, e-bikes and power tools. If damaged, defective or used incorrectly, these batteries can overheat, catch fire, and even explode. They're so combustible that outdoor survival expert Bear Grylls used the battery from a waterlogged phone on his television show to start a fire. 'As soon as I cut into the battery, that's going to expose the lithium to the oxygen and that mix of spark heat and oxygen is going to create fire,' he tells the audience. A few cuts later white smoke jets out of the battery, and the handful of tinder he's prepared bursts into flames. This propensity for rapid combustion means batteries thrown in with regular rubbish, then later crushed or damaged, can become flashpoints for infernos. This is why fires at scrap yards and inside rubbish trucks have become more commonplace. A large scrapyard fire on Saleyards Rd, Ōtāhuhu, last year. So, what are we doing? Keeping batteries out of places where they're likely to get damaged – like landfill or scrap yards – is one way to reduce fires. There's a push to make producers take more responsibility for the products they create, especially when the disposal can cause issues. This might mean educating the public on battery disposal and ensuring there are enough convenient places to stop the batteries ending up in rubbish bins, and a process to safely store, transport and recycle the returned batteries. In some cases companies voluntarily opt to provide the public with options for returning goods when they reach their end of life, but in 2020 moves were made to make schemes compulsory for a range of problematic items. E-waste joined tyres, refrigerants and synthetic gases, farm plastics and agrichemical containers, plastic packaging and larger batteries, such as electric car batteries as priority products for the Government. This meant regulated schemes would be set up under New Zealand's Waste Minimisation Act. The act requires product stewardship schemes be set up 'as soon as practicable' for priority products, but doesn't give a deadline. To date, only one of the six priority products – tyres – has a regulated scheme in place. The Tyrewise scheme became operational in September 2024. Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds told RNZ farm plastics and agrichemical containers were the current focus for the Government. 'I intend to progress schemes in a measured way to ensure they are well-considered and cost-of-living impacts are limited.' She said there are no confirmed dates relating to the e-waste scheme. 'The Ministry for the Environment is working with industry and stakeholders on the next steps. I have asked officials to keep me updated on progress, acknowledging that any proposed plan will require time to determine the next steps.' It's been five years, has it stalled? Simmonds said the e-waste stewardship scheme hasn't stalled, but it's fair to say some confusion surrounds its current status. Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds says farm plastics and agrichemical containers are the priority. Photo / Supplied Members of a working group who were part of an e-waste product stewardship scheme design project, led by non-profit TechCollect, told RNZ they hadn't been updated since a report was submitted to the Ministry for the Environment in June 2023. 'We never really got clear answers about why it wasn't progressing,' said Kahurangi Carter. She's a Green Party MP now, but at the time she was involved with the working group as a representative of Para Kore, a recycling and waste group with a focus on marae. She was one of 14 group members. Other working group members contacted by RNZ were also unaware of whether anything had happened since the report was submitted. 'I'm not sure what happened to it,' said Karen Driver, from the Zero Waste Network Aotearoa. Tim Findlay, former owner of Remarkit, a company which repurposed e-waste, said he has no idea what happened since the report was submitted. 'I'm not sure what goes on behind the scenes,' he said. 'Certainly a lot of time and effort went into this latest paper.' The paper Findlay was referring to was the 109-page report. It was headed up by not-for-profit TechCollect, which received $320,000 from a Waste Minimisation Fund to lead the design stage of an e-waste product stewardship scheme. TechCollect's head of operations, Michael Dudley, said the scheme didn't stall after the report was submitted to the Ministry for the Environment in 2023. 'Good things do take time, and it has moved at a glacial speed, I suppose, but you know, that's the nature of product stewardship. It is a slow burn and it's important to get the foundations right from the outset.' TechCollect spent just over a year completing further work and lodged an application to the Ministry for the Environment to be accredited to run the scheme. 'We're in the midst of the assessment process at the moment, and it's an up to 16-week assessment process. So the ball is certainly in the ministry's court for now,' Dudley said. If the ministry's assessment is completed by July and TechCollect receives accreditation, Dudley expects the scheme could be up and running by July 2026. A pilot programme has been running for seven years as a voluntary scheme involving some of TechCollect's members, including well-known brands such as HP, Canon, Dell, and the Warehouse Group. The pilot programme has 39 collection points nationwide where people can drop e-waste free-of-charge. The waste is broken down into different components for reuse and recycling by partners TechCollect works with. Lithium-ion batteries are shipped offshore as there is no infrastructure to recycle them domestically. Dudley said only a 'handful' of brands contribute to the voluntary scheme. 'It would be fantastic if I had all of the sector and the members supporting us, because we could achieve such a larger scale. I've been having conversations with the sector for the last seven years, and our member base remains the same size that it is. Without regulatory intervention and unfortunately a stick, I don't think you're going to see all of the sector come and do the right thing, organically or voluntarily.' If the recommendations in the report are implemented, it would mean a levy would be placed on all electronic products which are manufactured or imported to New Zealand. Dudley wasn't able to give an exact number for what the levy might be, saying the price would be dependent on how much material needed to be recycled. For the Tyrewise scheme the levy is based on the type and weight of tyre. A 9.5kg passenger car tyre has a levy of $6.65 plus gst. The money raised by the levy is used to cover the cost of recycling the product at the end of its life. Dudley described levy setting as a balancing act and said TechCollect has recommended frequent reviews of the levy to ensure it is not too high, or too low. Edging over the line, or 'going round and round in circles'? Another member of the working group, Laurence Zwimpfer from the eDay New Zealand Trust, has spent decades trying to get a scheme under way. He said in 2006 he wrote a report for the Ministry for the Environment highlighting the need for a system to deal with e-waste. 'We thought it would take six months. Now it's nearly 20 years and we still don't have anything in place.' He said lithium-ion battery fires are a consequence of not having something in place. He was a little forlorn when he recently received yet another consultation document, this time asking about extended producer responsibility (EPR) rather than product stewardship. 'It starts off: Do you support the proposal for a modern EPR framework?' The consultation is related to the Government's work on proposed amendments to the Waste Minimisation Act. One of the key changes which are proposed is changing the product stewardship provisions with extended producer responsibility provisions. Zwimpfer explained the two terms are often used interchangeably, with EPR having more focus on producers paying for recycling, and product stewardship sometimes being more collaborative with community groups, or local authorities being involved in some way. 'It's an insult to people that have been involved for 20 years in this process to now go back to say: Do people think this is a good idea?' He worries this new amendment might mean more delays to a formalised scheme. 'We're waiting for government, really, and nothing's changed since 2008 when we told them that in 2008 that's still our position. We've got businesses to run. We can't spend all our day sitting around the table, going round and round in circles.' Dudley sounds enthusiastic about the prospect of a scheme with a government 'stick' behind it in the form of regulations. If TechCollect is successful, he believes the public will see an increase in drop-off points from the current 39 to approximately 300. The need for recycling would be communicated with a nationwide campaign. He said it's his understanding that applications already lodged would continue to be assessed under the current legislation, but he's also confident it meets objectives of an EPR-focused scheme. 'We cannot kick the can down the road any further or delay. We've got the solution. We've got the goodwill of industry. Let's not waste it.' So, what should you do with lithium-ion batteries? Fire and Emergency New Zealand's community and education manager Tom Ronaldson said lithium-ion batteries should never be thrown out in the household rubbish and should be taken to a collection facility or a transfer station. These facilities, either run by councils or private entities, can be found on a map created by WasteMINZ. He urged people to only charge batteries when they are at home and awake and to avoid over-charging devices. 'The toxic chemicals produced during a lithium-ion battery fire are harmful to people, so if a battery catches fire or makes unusual sounds like cracking or clicking, leave it immediately and call 111.'
