KEY POINTS:
Firefighters, emergency service workers and members of the public caught up in the Tamahere fire and explosion are being considered for commendations for acts of bravery.
A senior Fire Service officer said yesterday that work had already started on "assessing the recognition that is required for the rewards
to various people".
Six men from the Hamilton Fire Service's Red Watch remain in hospital with injuries caused by the inferno and gas blast.
One, Merv Neil, 43, is in a critical condition in Middlemore Hospital.
The Fire Service and medical staff hope some of the injured men will be well enough to attend the funeral tomorrow of their colleague, Derek Lovell, 49, who was fatally injured in the fire.
David Beanland, 44, Alvan Walker, 35, Adrian Brown, 51, Brian Halford, 37, and Dennis Wells, 51, are in Waikato Hospital.
The eighth member of the team, Cameron Grylls, 29, suffered minor injuries.
The men make up about a quarter of the Hamilton Fire Service and have served between three and 34 years.
The huge blaze, on Saturday, and the clean-up have involved more than 150 firefighters from as far away as Palmerston North, Tauranga, Taupo and Auckland.
Bay-Waikato Fire Region Assistant Commander Roy Breeze told the Herald yesterday that he was proud of the efforts of all the firefighters, who had banded together to help one another during a time of tragedy.
In particular, he commended Hamilton Fire Chief Gary Talbot and his deputy Martin Berryman, who he said arrived to a scene of chaos, yet stayed calm enough to command the scene.
"They arrived to see heaps of firefighters being tended to by other firefighters and the public and then realised that another cylinder was potentially going to explode and would have killed them all.
"So he [Mr Talbot] had to override what was happening and get patients moved, and also pull some firefighters away from assisting the other firefighters to set up cooling deliveries to reduce the chance of an explosion."
Mr Breeze expected the pair would be among those recognised for their actions.
He also praised the actions of emergency service workers and members of the public who rushed to the scene and helped after the explosion.
"They've just done an incredible job," he said.
"There will be commendations to a number of people. We've already got lists of the people who were involved.
"We're trying to assess everyone, including the public, police, ambulance - everyone's involvement in what they did - assessing the recognition that is required for the rewards to various people."
For now, though, the focus was on the injured firefighters, their families and allowing staff time to grieve.
Hamilton's firefighters have been working extra hours to cover the manpower shortage since Saturday, damping down hotspots that were still smouldering at the scene as fire inspectors arrived yesterday.
"Everyone's doing high hours," Mr Breeze said. "We've lost a whole watch in one fire station. We need to look after the men next."
Hamilton officers will be relieved of their duties for 24 hours by colleagues from Auckland and the Bay-Waikato fire region so they can farewell Mr Lovell.
"Other brigades have come in so we can focus on us," Mr Breeze said.
"The national Fire Service is playing a huge role so they can leave us to our mourning and looking after our injured and their families."
As well, the Fire Service had received "piles" of generous offers from its volunteer firefighters.
"I'm just proud to be part of it, to be part of that sort of team."
While the personal toll had been enormous, Mr Breeze said, it was too early to count the financial costs of the fire.
"If you just look at things like the equipment side alone, our truck was worth half a million dollars.
"We haven't added it up yet [but] there's potentially $100,000 worth of equipment destroyed in the fire - everything from radios, to the hoses, to the thermal imaging cameras."
The Fire Service had been humbled by acts of kindness since the explosion.
"There's a huge amount of things - free food at cafes for us, the flowers and messages and the donations."
Mr Breeze said if the public wanted to help, they could donate money to help the families of the firefighters at any Westpac bank branch.
The Tamahere Firefighters' Families Fund has been set up under account number 03-0318-0879377-00.
People living near the burned-out Icepack Coolstore at Tamahere have been told to continue to keep doors and windows shut and stay inside where possible to avoid smoke and fumes.
