Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade report

Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade has had 13 calls in the past fortnight.

Emergency calls as at April 29: 90

There have been 13 calls in the last fortnight – one false alarm, two medicals, four motor vehicle crashes where extrication was not required.

The two crashes happened within 24 hours and about 50 metres of each other on Te Puke Highway.

There was one call resulting from the smell of gas in Tauranga CBD, but the truck was stood down before arrival, and we were put on standby for Tauranga when their rescue truck was committed to a vegetation fire at Minden Rd. Our tanker also attended this call for additional water supply.

There were three local fires, including one at Pukepine, which was out upon arrival. However the medical ute also responded. Incidentally, the call came in during the Anzac Day commemorations, causing almost all of our volunteers to leave the hall. (Please accept our apologies for any disruption to the service.)

There has also been a small vegetation fire beside Te Puke Highway and a close call at a house on Boucher Ave.

The householder had inadvertently left a pan on the stove and left the premises to run an errand, filling the house with smoke. A neighbour heard the smoke alarms and was able to wake the sleeping boarders before calling us. The occupants were able to remove the offending pan before it caught fire, but it must have been very close to igniting.

This provides a sharp reminder of how easy it is to forget items on the stove and how quickly things can go wrong. It also proves, without question, the value of working smoke alarms – had these not sounded the results could very well have been catastrophic both in terms of property and possibly life, as the boarders were asleep in their rooms with their doors shut - completely unaware of the smoke alarms and smoke at the other end of the house.

Check out the Brigade Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Te.Puke.Fire.Brigade

Dale Lindsay is Te Puke fire chief