In a video posted on social media by the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU), audio from inside the cab of another fire engine reveals a firefighter saying via radio: \u201cBalmoral 611 appliance pump is not functioning\u201d. <\/p>\n
When asked about the incident by the Herald, a Fire and Emergency spokesperson said: \u201cOur mechanics have not yet found anything wrong with the vehicle. It\u2019s possible that it\u2019s an intermittent fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZPFU Auckland local president Terry Bird said \u201cthe pump did not engage\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the pump which generates the pressure for the hoses to be able to put out the fire. At this point in time, we don\u2019t know what the reason is that it didn\u2019t engage. My hope is that there would be a thorough investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect our gear to work every time. We expose our firefighters to hazardous workplaces and we do that with the confidence that our gear will work every time. And we do that because we have checked it and tested it. And we do this daily and weekly. So when it [equipment failure] happens it is a big deal to firefighters, because it means that our systems are not safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firefighters managed to contain the blaze, which was next to a Z Energy station, by about 2.25pm after an \u201cinterior fire attack\u201d was performed.<\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency said eight fire engines, one heavy aerial appliance and two standard aerial vehicles were in attendance, as well as a specialist foam engine, a specialist hose layer, a specialist command unit and a fire investigator.<\/p>\n
There were no reports of injuries or anyone trapped inside the building.<\/p>\n
A fire at a mechanics business on Williamson Ave, Ponsonby, next to a Z Energy station was contained by firefighters. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
Bird said firefighters have engines breaking down \u201call the time\u201d, which \u201cisn\u2019t good enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what the cause of this particular incident was … however, we have trucks breaking down all the time. It is inevitable that we will have breakdowns at fires. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn Monday, a similar appliance broke down in the middle of the Greenlane Great South Rd intersection and blocked traffic for some time until a tow truck came and got it. Right now there\u2019s a truck broken down … at Takapuna which has just gone K0 \u2013 that K0 means it\u2019s not available due to a mechanical fault. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue for Fire and Emergency is that our fleet is ageing, there hasn\u2019t been an injection of new appliances for some time, and the trucks in our fleets, even the modern ones, are doing a big work load and they\u2019re becoming worn out and less reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NZPFU says fire engines break down “all the time”, which “isn’t good enough”. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said the vehicle that failed at the Ponsonby fire \u201cis currently out of service while the issue is being further investigated\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire and Emergency maintains a fleet of relief appliances that are deployed when trucks go in for planned servicing or repairs, ensuring continuity of service across the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cEquipment does break from time to time, that\u2019s the nature of these machines. These are large, complicated vehicles but they are well-maintained, safe, certified and legally compliant. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is because we spend over $20 million per year on a robust schedule for regular inspection, maintenance and repairs. We\u2019re also currently spending over $20 million per year on replacement trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency has been in negotiations with the NZPFU for more than 600 days over issues including claims its fleet is not fit for purpose. <\/p>\n
The NZPFU, which has been bargaining for a new collective agreement since October, has ramped up industrial action to two one-hour stoppages a week. <\/p>\n
Bird says one of the reasons the union is striking is because of safety concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we talk about appliances, we\u2019re talking about safe workplaces and safe systems of work. And we want assurances that this happens. We want to work with Fire and Emergency, we want to co-operate with Fire and Emergency in order to ensure that we have the reliable equipment and appliances that we need. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf our gear is safe, we can make decisions around ensuring their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZPFU members were on strike from noon-1pm on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a video posted on social media by the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU), audio from inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11429,1975,51,3221,17517,9218,4996,1853,10709,15974,32878,15972,42343,181383,2079,7572,679,111,43,139,69,22704,6302,8466,6378,4483,2573,5273,3608],"class_list":["post-338990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-arrive","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-battling","tag-because","tag-before","tag-blaze","tag-central","tag-concerns","tag-emergency","tag-engine","tag-equipment","tag-failure","tag-faulty","tag-fire","tag-firefighters","tag-forced","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-responding","tag-safety","tag-second","tag-suffers","tag-union","tag-voices","tag-wait","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338990","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=338990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}