Three new Type 5 medium trucks arrived at Fraser Engineering in Wellington for their body builds in February 2024. Photo: Supplied / FENZ
The Professional Firefighters Union says continual breakdowns of Fire and Emergency's high reach aerial trucks are putting both firefighters and the public at risk.
On Tuesday, the union said the last high reach aerial in Auckland suffered a serious steering fault, putting it out of action.
Fire and Emergency said it was confident it would have the resources needed if a fire broke out in the Auckland region.
Union vice president Martin Campbell, said that had left Auckland with no heavy aerial truck and essentially "no capability to reach people pretty much over three stories right across Auckland".
Campbell said responding firefighters would likely be forced to fight a fire from inside the building, rather than the safer option of outside or high above the blaze.
It could also make rescues more difficult.
The next closest aerial truck was in Hamilton.
FENZ said another was being sent from Wellington to Auckland overnight on Tuesday.
"Across the Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau regions there are 134 fire trucks which we operate as a network of resources that can be called on. All our standard urban fire trucks have ladders, which can be used for rescues, not just the trucks called aerial trucks," said deputy chief executive organisational strategy and capability development Sarah Sinclair.
"Our officers are trained to be agile using the resources available to respond to multiple incidents simultaneously. We trust our officers to make the right tactical decisions using the resources available to them," she said.
A nationwide problem
Campbell said it was not uncommon for cities to be without a high-reach aerial truck.
"FENZ has failed to prioritise and put money into its fleet. It has failed to replace these aerial trucks in a timely manner. It has waited, unfortunately, until the trucks are at or beyond their end of life before it went into a process of looking to replace them."
Fire and Emergency had 1300 trucks nationwide, 29 of which were aerials.
Campbell was aware of at least eight aerials that were not currently working.
In Wellington, they were down to a single 32-metre aerial, after another went to Auckland.
The union's Wellington president Clark Townsley said being down to one aerial meant they did not have the capability to cover both sides of a multi-storey building fire and if one broke out, it would effectively be a "flip of a dice".
Meanwhile, in Christchurch, the union said the 32-metre aerial truck was out of action and had been replaced by a ute - which was only useful for ferrying firefighters to fires.
"It's of grave concern," said the union's Christchurch president Aaron Mackay.
He said the aerial truck had an undiagnosed fault with its brakes. It was removed from regular service on Monday night, though it can still be used in an emergency.
Mackay said Christchurch did have a 17-metre aerial, but that had also been out of commission last week.
New aerials on the way
Three new aerial trucks slated for Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin arrived at Fraser Engineering in Wellington for their body builds late last year. Another two were being built at R A Bell in Australia.
Campbell said the union understood the trucks that were in the country were too heavy and had asked FENZ to get a dispensation from the Transport Agency to get them on the road.
Fire and Emergency said the trucks were still being built and were not expected to start being delivered until the end of the year. It did not respond to questions on whether the trucks were overweight.
But Mackay said even those five trucks were a "stopgap measure", with an ageing aerial fleet.
"We need to buy the equivalent fleet for the communities that we serve and protect," he said.
"Our firefighters deserve more and our communities deserve more."
Sinclair said FENZ's fleet of trucks were well maintained, safe, certified, and legally compliant.
"Our fleet is ageing, and we are implementing a long-term investment plan to replace trucks, as well as investing in maintenance and repairs. Since Fire and Emergency was formed in 2017, we have replaced 317 trucks. We have another 70 on order with first deliveries anticipated shortly. Of the 70 trucks currently on order, five are replacement aerial trucks."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
