by Peter de Graaf Some Far North firefighters say lives and property could be put at risk because messages alerting them to fire callouts are not getting through. Across the region, volunteer firefighters rely on pagers - electronic devices which beep repeatedly and deliver a short message - to alert them tofires or other emergencies. Pagers work on a Telecom network separate from the cellphone system. Some firefighters say the problem has become worse since Telecom adjusted its transmitters late last year. But the company says the changes were so minor they could not have stopped messages getting through. Mangonui station officer Greg Beeson said the brigade's pager troubles had increased since Christmas. "Telecom has a major problem and they need to sort it out," he said. However, the Mangonui brigade - which was also subject to power cuts that knocked out its siren - had robust back-up systems for alerting its volunteers. "The main thing is we can still roll our trucks out," he said. One of the worst affected areas is Omapere in South Hokianga, although chief fire officer Dene Preston said the brigade's pager woes were nothing new. The problems were intermittent and probably down to geography, with half the brigade's 12 members living in the Waimamaku valley, which is separated from Omapere by a range of hills. Sometimes all volunteers were alerted but on a few occasions the message reached only half. In those cases firefighters were alerted by phone. "We always manage to get a crew out but there can be delays," he said. Mr Preston said life or property had so far not been put in danger,
