Fire crews plead for more staff

By CATHY ARONSON

Hamilton's Fraser High School gym might not have been so badly damaged if the city's fire station had more on-duty staff, the Professional Firefighters Union claims.

The $5 million gym, including a new $1.5 million extension, went up in flames on Saturday, to the devastation of the principal, Martin Elliott, and the school community.

The school's 1700 students walked past the ruins of the gym yesterday morning as four teenagers appeared in the Youth Court charged with arson.

Firefighters union Hamilton secretary Peter Hallett said 14 on-duty staff had to fight the blaze on their own for 23 minutes and at least two storage sheds, with expensive school equipment, could have been saved.

The station's on-duty staffing has not increased since the 1970s, despite an internal Fire Service audit in 1995 highlighting the lack of staff.

The audit was commissioned after six people were killed when the New Empire Hotel burned down in 1995.

It recommended a review of staffing and said: "It is asking a lot from the 14 on-duty firefighters to handle difficult situations in the inner city like the Empire Hotel."

Mr Hallett said that since the 1995 fire, Hamilton's population had increased by 5 per cent and the number of callouts had risen from 1317 to 1887 last year.

Properties had needlessly burned down in that time.

He said Hamilton's staffing compared unfavourably with that of similarly sized districts.

Dunedin, with a census-night population of 116,739 (Hamilton's is 114,975) had 22 on-duty firefighters.

Fire Service Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional manager Bill Butzbach said Hamilton's staffing would be considered as part of a national survey of all districts, due to be completed next year.

A computer programme would consider population, the number of fires, buildings, industries and topography.

He said having more staff available would not have saved the Fraser High School gym, as it was well ablaze when the Fire Service was called. They had back-up from another 50 Waikato firefighters.

Mr Hallett said the number of on-duty officers at the scene in the first 10 minutes was essential, because a fire doubled in size every minute.

He operated the aerial truck on his own that night and said it took him 10 minutes to get it operational.

He said the fight for more on-duty staff had been going on since 1978, when Hamilton had the same number of staff as today but had a population of 89,000.