“Disturbing behaviour” in Dunedin’s student quarter put emergency services at serious risk and represents a disappointing uptick of poor behaviour in the area, officials say.
On Wednesday night, firefighters in North Dunedin were forced to withdraw when fireworks were shot at a crew dousing a blazing couch and police arrested three men for disorder offences in Castle St after they allegedly launched fireworks at officers.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Otago District Commander Craig Geddes said crews made the right decision to pull back in the face of a “chaotic situation”.
“I want to ensure that they all go home safe at the end of shift and that disturbing behaviour of targeting our firefighters with fireworks directed at them puts them at serious risk of harm.”
On Monday night, police and fire crews were shot at with fireworks after responding to reports of people shooting fireworks at each other in Castle St.
In the three hours from 11pm on Wednesday, fire crews responded to five separate couch fires in the student quarter and safely extinguished three, DC Geddes said.
“The last two, we had to withdraw our resources to a safe position because we were targeted with fireworks.
“The officer in charge made the decision to withdraw, but observe the fire, but they weren’t able to safely extinguish the fire.”
DC Geddes said Fenz had been pleased to see incident frequency in the student quarter drop in recent years — in February, the Otago Daily Times reported no couches were burnt during university orientation celebrations.
“But in relation to couch fires in the student quarter, we have seen an upsurge in the last few months, which is really concerning because the behaviour has been pretty good up until that point in time.
“While [crews] are tied up at those incidents, they are unable to respond to other people genuinely in need of our help, and that delay … minutes, could cost lives.”
A vegetation fire at Tomahawk Lagoon, about 100m long and 20m deep, engaged four fire appliances and two rural fire crews for several hours from about 8pm.
DC Geddes said the fire had the potential to be significant and though it remained under investigation, a firework was the most likely cause.
Across Otago, Fenz responded to 16 firework-related calls in the 12 hours from 6pm Wednesday — conditions were dry and posed a “real risk” of further fires.
“I really caution people to, anytime they’re operating the fireworks, that they do that appropriately,” DC Geddes said.
Outgoing Otago University Students’ Association president Liam White said he had not seen the likes of Wednesday night’s behaviour in his time.
“I was quite confident that actually we seemed to be, not moving past, but moving through the party culture, particularly that more extreme end of it,” Mr White said.
“But it seems like it’s all coming out in one week.”
There were endless possible causes of the behaviour — “uniquely stressed” students navigating a challenging study environment with high cost of living may have felt the end of the academic year should finish “with a bang”.
The celebrations only made life difficult for emergency service staff, Mr White said.
Sergeant Matt Lee, of Dunedin, said police responded to multiple reports of people setting off fireworks in Castle St about 9pm on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately some attendees decided to aim fireworks at officers, which is reckless and dangerous — thankfully, no-one was injured.
“There were around 80 people on the street and despite multiple warnings, they continued to shoot fireworks at our staff.”
Two 19-year-old men and a 20-year-old man were arrested for disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence and held in police custody overnight.
They were released yesterday morning with formal warnings and two would receive infringement notices for discharging fireworks in a public place, Sgt Lee said.
After Monday’s incident, a University of Otago spokeswoman said it was “extremely disappointed by the dangerous and unacceptable behaviour” and the incident was being investigated by the Proctor’s Office.
In a statement yesterday, she said targeting people with fireworks was a serious matter and disciplinary action was likely to follow the Proctor’s investigations.
The Proctor had proactively visited Castle St flats earlier in the week urging students to act responsibly and reminding them of expectations under the law and Student Code of Conduct.
While incidents involving fireworks had “not historically been a particular recent problem”, the university was taking this week’s events seriously.
“In terms of broader student behaviour, Campus Watch has been pleased with the behaviour of the majority of students this year.”