Northland firefighters say they're enduring an "overwhelming workload". Photo / Ahiparadise / Lennox Goodhue Wikitera
The fallout from the ongoing pandemic coupled with a surge of "unnecessary fires" has Northland firefighters facing a battle away from the flames – exhaustion.
The relentless fire season has seen major blazes – such as Kaimaumau, Karikari Peninsula, and Aranga near Dargaville – stacked on top of severe weather emergencies, medicals, and crashes.
At the same time, the number of available firefighters has dwindled as Omicron continues to surge.
In some instances, fire crews have travelled more than 100km to cover brigades struggling to get a truck out the door.
Recently a tanker from the Maungakaramea Volunteer Fire Brigade made a two-hour journey to attend a blaze in Ōmāpere, joined by a second tanker from an hour's drive away in Dargaville.
Far North crews were especially under pressure as they faced record numbers of callouts already.
Kaitāia deputy fire chief Ross Beddows described this summer as one of their busiest yet.
"As of today [March 9] so far in 2022, we have responded to 116 callouts – in excess of one a day – which does of course place a bit of strain on volunteers for emergency response."
On March 4 alone, the brigade responded to three vegetation fires.
The first was a scrub fire on Pukepoto Rd, where a digger moving piles of wood chip and other dry vegetation tipped backwards into a drain.
"The driver was not injured and got out of the machine himself but the hot exhaust set the grass alight which spread to nearby scrub," Beddows said.
Three appliances and a water tanker turned out to extinguish the fire within 15 minutes.
Later that morning the crew were out again, as three Kaitāia appliances and a Houhora Volunteer Fire Brigade tanker responded to a pampas fire on Larmer Rd, south of Kaitāia.
"About 40m of pampas went up in flames alongside the road in windy conditions. The firefighters could not attack the blaze until the power had been shut off as lines ran directly overhead."
Firefighters spent more than an hour bringing the blaze under control.
About three hours later, Kaitāia were called to a "much larger fire" near Kaingaroa, towards the end of Pukewhai Rd.
"The fire appeared to have started near a rubbish dump in a clearing surrounded by scrub," Beddows said.
When the first crew arrived the flames had taken a "firm hold" in high ti-tree plants and "driven by a gusty easterly" soon advanced towards two nearby homes, which the brigades were able to save.
Crews from Houhora and Karikari fought the blaze alongside Kaitāia firefighters while four helicopters and heavy machinery were brought in to help.
But it wasn't until dark that firefighters were able to bring the wildfire to a halt.
"The blaze swept through ti-tree, grass and scrub, destroying several beehives and fences and had burned to almost half a kilometre from its starting point," Beddows said.
The cause was still under investigation but the Advocate understands an unpermitted rubbish fire may be at the centre of it.
Beddows said other seasons had paled in comparison to what Northland firefighters had endured this year alone with the cyclone, major blazes, and a strong, gusting wind that won't cease.
"Then in the background, we have Covid, which makes it harder and harder for some brigades to turn a crew out, so they're relying on the same people all the time."
Or the bigger brigades were having to help cover areas out of town whose smaller stations were struggling, he said.
"It's getting harder and harder for a lot of firefighters. The impact of the fires being lit, when they shouldn't, goes further than most people realise."
It's a viewpoint held also by Kerikeri fire chief Les Wasson.
"We're attending unnecessary calls where people have lit fires in high winds and dry weather … it puts a huge strain on my brigade and everyone else's," he said.
Numbers in Wasson's 27-strong brigade had dropped as firefighters became household contacts – especially in Kerikeri, which had been hit hard and early by Northland's Omicron outbreak.
He also noted the stress placed on firefighters also intruded into their personal lives.
Wasson wanted to remind people that the firefighters were volunteers. Whatever time they gave up they did so freely, because they had an intrinsic pull to help their communities.
"The majority of my guys are self-employed or they work for people who really depend on them … but when that hooter goes it doesn't matter if we're at a birthday party or a family barbecue, we gotta go."
Kaikohe fire chief Bill Hutchinson said they were ahead of calls this year compared with the same period last year. Their brigade had been heavily leaned on to help smaller stations.
"In the last two months, 90 per cent of rural fires we attended could've been avoided by using basic common sense."
He was frustrated that people weren't paying attention to the weather conditions or were deliberately starting fires.
An example was a car set ablaze on the roadside in Ōmāpere.
"It spread off into the scrub and grass. This was around 10.15pm and we never got home until 4am."
Then the fire crew were called back out again at 8am.
"It's taking its toll. We had 15 calls from Friday night [March 4] until Monday [March 7] …the workload is overwhelming," Hutchinson said.
Among them were medical calls, four during a small period of time.
"If we're out there responding to people mucking around with vegetation fires that could've been avoided it could mean we're going to struggle to get to people who need medical support."
Northland fire brigades provide vital backup for St John paramedics who are themselves under pressure from Covid-related staff absences and non-urgent 111 calls.
As it stands, anyone calling 111 for an ambulance can expect a delay before their call is answered with reports of record wait times up to seven-and-a-half minutes.
"It's tough, it's really tough right now," Hutchinson said. "We're doing our best to stay positive and keep our chins up."
Fire and Emergency NZ Northland district manager Wipari Henwood praised Northland firefighters' handling of hiked callouts and the consequences of "unusual weather patterns".
"Omicron is becoming more prevalent in the community and there's no doubt we're experiencing that in our paid staff and volunteers with our numbers impacted."
Roughly two weeks ago, just two or three Northland brigades were mostly affected but that had since risen to 11 or 12, Henwood said.
"We want to reassure everybody that we're still responding to emergencies within our communities in Northland."
But the partnerships between Fire and Emergency and other emergency services, as well as iwi and other local connections, had become more vital than ever.
Henwood said the wildfire risk increased every day as the weather brought strong gusts and dry conditions but no rainfall.
The concern was such that Fire and Emergency decided to put Northland into a prohibited fire season, starting yesterday, to protect communities and its firefighters.
"We are critically asking Northlanders to stop lighting fires in the outdoors … at the end of the day, all of the services are being stretched but are still responding to everything," Henwood said.
"The morale is waning a bit; it's hard because people can't see the end of the tunnel. They're just trying to live day by day so this is one way to be kind to one another."
Initial construction work on the next section is set to begin by the end of next year.