The NZPFU said the “failure” played out in full public view.
They said this incident took a critical aerial appliance out of service and further reduced Auckland’s already stretched emergency response capability.
“This is the emergency Fenz [Fire and Emergency New Zealand] won’t talk about: aging [sic] equipment, repeated breakdowns, and a system with no resilience when frontline appliances fail,” NZPFU said.
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said the Auckland aerial truck in question had a hydraulic leak today, which has since been repaired and is operational again.
“We acknowledge we have an ageing fleet and that is why we have a fleet replacement programme underway.
“We are currently spending $20 million a year to replace our older trucks,” the spokesperson said.
Fire and Emergency said it is having five replacement aerial trucks built, which are expected to be delivered by the middle of next year.
The spokesperson said they have replaced 317 trucks since Fire and Emergency was established in 2017.
This comes after Fire and Emergency said paid firefighters are “rolling the dice on people’s safety” with ongoing strike action, RNZ reported.
In a statement, Fire and Emergency said there were 22 calls for incidents during the hour that union-affiliated staff walked off the job during earlier strike action on December 12.
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