Fire service staffing crisis as city swells

By Rachel Tiffen
Firefighters are working in constant fear someone will die because they are covering fast-growing Tauranga with the same number of fulltime staff they had 34 years ago.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union has grave concerns for the Western Bay, which it describes as "horrendously" under-staffed with 36 paid firefighters.
There have been no extra paid firefighters hired in Tauranga since 1972 - while the city's population has soared from about 42,000 to 105,000. Tauranga also has the country's biggest export port and large petro-chemical storage facilities.
A special Bay of Plenty Times investigation into the state of Tauranga's fire service has revealed fulltime frontline firefighters and their union are nervous.
National union president Michael McEnaney said the union had "serious concerns that lives and property are at risk in Tauranga due to the lack of resources available".
"Our members in Tauranga have expressed these concerns to management on many occasions but are continually ignored."
Tauranga Chief Fire Officer Ron Devlin said "it would be fair to say we struggle at times" and region commander Owen Kinsela admits Tauranga needs more resources.
The Fire Service says it is planning a new Tauranga station to house more staff but it remains unclear when and where it would be built.
The Bay Times inquiry has also found that paid firefighters are failing to reach fires within the recommended seven-minute timeframe 44 per cent of the time.
Volunteers are failing to meet their 10-minute recommended response time in 66 per cent of callouts. Most volunteers have fulltime jobs and often cannot get to the outer suburbs they cover, meaning paid staff have to respond instead. Some paid staff worry the extra four or five minutes taken for them to get to areas covered by volunteers may make the fatal difference one day.
"Five minutes is a hell of a lot of time for a fire to be burning. It just grows and grows out of all proportion," said one fireman, who spoke on the condition he was not named.
The staffing issue was raised this week at a meeting attended by the firefighters union and Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker, who is responsible for the fire service.
But a spokesman for Mr Barker said afterwards that staffing and resources were the responsibility of the Fire Service. "It would be a little inappropriate for the minister to make any comment about how the fire service determines the distribution of its resources."
For the past 34 years, four crew members have been rostered on at the Tauranga central station and four at the Mount station at any one time. They come from a pool of 36 paid firefighters in the city.
A 64-strong pool of volunteers is also on-call, based at Greerton and Papamoa.
In 1999, a new volunteer-staffed station was built at Greerton but staff often cannot respond in time. This is largely because it is situated in an industrial area and many of its crew work on opposite sides of the city.
Officer in charge of the Greerton station, Chris Hurley, said it was difficult to find employers who allowed volunteers time off for fire duties.
"It's not like in smaller communities where the whole area's involved." He encouraged business operators to consider the service that volunteer firemen were doing the community.
Staffing issues have also prompted the fire union to conduct an internal inquiry into last month's massive industrial fire on Koromiko St.
The large Tyremovers warehouse was gutted in the blaze, thought to be triggered by a spark in fuel. Welcome Bay man Wayne Farrar suffered second degree burns and was airlifted to Waikato Hospital's specialist plastics unit. He returned home last week and is reportedly making good progress.
Mr McEnaney, of the firefighters union, said there were "serious concerns" about the heavy reliance on volunteer staff for the incident - with crews being brought in from as far afield as Maketu.
This only heightened existing worries about Tauranga's ongoing dependence on volunteers to form full responses, he said.
Staffing levels were "horrendously" low, particularly given the amount of oil being transferred in and out of Tauranga port, Mr McEnaney said.
A Tauranga Fire Service source told the Bay Times crew members jokingly referred to themselves as "the Village Fire Brigade" and believed national headquarters still considered Tauranga to be a "tinpot little town".
A call-out to a Pyes Pa rest home this week - which proved minor - could have cost lives, they say.
Tauranga staff had to travel from Cameron Rd and were a crucial five minutes or so slower than Greerton would have been. Greerton volunteer firefighters were unable to respond in time.
The Bay of Plenty Times has also learned that about a year ago Mr Devlin was asked to review resources in Tauranga and submit a report to national headquarters.
Factors such as population growth and spread, measured risk, deprivation and incoming industries were taken into account.
Mr Devlin said the report looked at risk to the community, how best to manage resources and considered Tauranga's direction for the next 25 years.
The report suggested one more paid station in south Tauranga would help address the district's response needs. This would translate to four more paid firefighters rostered on at any one time - and a total of 18 more paid staff on the roll. Funding needed for this would exceed $1 million.
"It's a matter of whether resources match your risk and ability to reach reasonable timeframes," Mr Devlin said.
Aside from incident call-outs, there was a strong focus on education and awareness in Tauranga. Staff visit schools and community groups and teach the importance of fire safety and installing alarms and systems.
Mr Devlin estimated staff spent 30 per cent of their time educating, 30 per cent dealing with building compliance and another 30 per cent on servicing and "readiness". The response part of firefighting "hung over top" of that.
Mr Kinsela, the region fire commander, moved to Tauranga two years ago and said he immediately saw a need for more resources. "With all its growth and industry it needs more resources."
Since Mr Devlin's report was submitted, national HQ has authorised the building of a new station - pending the identification of a suitable site.
It is understood three or four south Tauranga locations are being considered by national property experts.
Fire Service national chief executive Mike Hall refused interviewed but in a written statement said additional staffing would only be considered once a suitable station had been finalised.
He did not say how long that might take.
Lobbying for a new station at the Mount began in 1998 but building only began this year.