{"id":292958,"date":"2026-02-20T06:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292958\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:15:09","slug":"northcote-college-fire-union-blames-fire-and-emergency-for-delay-in-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292958\/","title":{"rendered":"Northcote College fire: Union blames Fire and Emergency for delay in response"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local board member is calling the incident \u201ca real blow\u201d after years of construction disrupting the school. <\/p>\n

Kaip\u0101tiki local board member and Northcote College ex-student Paula Gillon said she was devastated by the blaze. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a past pupil of the college, I\u2019m absolutely devastated about the fire. That building is a heritage building, and it\u2019s a real blow to the community coming a year before they celebrate their 150-year anniversary,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Gillon said after spending years dealing with building works, this fire was a \u201cmassive setback\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"AA fire broke out at Northcote College in Auckland amid the firefighters’ strike. Photo \/ Dean Purcell\"Friday'sFriday’s fire destroyed the sports pavilion at Northcote College. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

\u2018Yet another failure for Fire and Emergency\u2019 <\/p>\n

Earlier today, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) confirmed in a social media post that it would be striking from between noon and 1pm. <\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency said crews were alerted to a fire at the college at 12.17pm today. <\/p>\n

They said the Silverdale Fire Brigade was the first crew to arrive at the scene at 12.29pm.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency said it took volunteer crews 30 minutes to travel to the scene, compared with the usual time of about seven minutes.<\/p>\n

It accused the union of \u201cgambling with the public\u2019s safety\u201d and urged future strikes be called off. <\/p>\n

NZPFU vice-president Martin Campbell said the school fire is \u201cyet another failure for Fire and Emergency New Zealand\u201d. <\/p>\n

Campbell said today\u2019s delay \u201cfalls squarely\u201d on Fire and Emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite nearly 19 months of bargaining, [Fire and Emergency] have failed to provide a fair and reasonable offer to NZPFU membership. <\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteer firefighters did an amazing job containing the fire until the arrival of career firefighters with specialist capabilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur volunteers shouldn\u2019t have to be placed in this position by Fire and Emergency,\u201d Campbell said. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe fire at Northcote College was reported to emergency services at 12.17pm today. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

Students evacuate <\/p>\n

A Northcote College spokesperson said they were sad to have lost the oldest building on the school site. <\/p>\n

College students and parents received an email this afternoon, in which the school said it was proud of the way students and staff responded. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there will be some upset young people after today\u2019s event. We will have counsellors on site tomorrow between 9-11am to support as needed,\u201d the email said. <\/p>\n

The school said support will also be available in the coming days and weeks. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome students left school today without their bags because of the evacuation,\u201d the email read. <\/p>\n

One student told the Herald the evacuated classes were initially lined up on the field but were moved to the courts when the fire began to spread.<\/p>\n

He said teachers had been calm during the evacuation but \u201cwere starting to get really stressed when they realised the fire was getting big\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union says volunteer crews did an amazing job containing the blaze. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

The student said he had heard multiple pupils report that the fire started in the toilets of the old gym.<\/p>\n

Auckland councillor Richard Hills said it was sad to see another fire at the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be hugely upsetting to students, staff and school wh\u0101nau, especially as they\u2019re just getting back to normal, after the previous fire, and recent opening of new and upgraded buildings post-construction,\u201d Hills said.<\/p>\n

The latest fire comes nearly 12 years after a devastating blaze destroyed the college\u2019s technology block (E block) in September 2014.<\/p>\n

That fire was discovered by a security guard shortly before 8pm.<\/p>\n

One student told the Herald she, along with many others, had schoolwork inside the burning building.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local board member is calling the incident \u201ca real blow\u201d after years of construction disrupting the school.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,3221,29024,4996,674,12784,9947,15974,15248,2079,7572,2082,6628,78,111,43,139,529,55139,69,12886,5034,14033,312,4062,18484,89274,1361,210,4483,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-292958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-battling","10":"tag-blames","11":"tag-blaze","12":"tag-building","13":"tag-college","14":"tag-delay","15":"tag-emergency","16":"tag-falls","17":"tag-fire","18":"tag-firefighters","19":"tag-for","20":"tag-historic","21":"tag-in","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-north","26":"tag-northcote","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-professional","29":"tag-response","30":"tag-ripped","31":"tag-says","32":"tag-school","33":"tag-shore","34":"tag-squarely","35":"tag-that","36":"tag-through","37":"tag-union","38":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}