Comment: Emergency services save us from total chaos

SCENE: The traumatic scene at Sunday's head-on crash near Edgecumbe that claimed the life of a baby. PHOTO/KATEE SHANKS

This is the first opinion piece I have written.

It follows a weekend of catastrophe in the Eastern Bay and its sole purpose is to praise our emergency crews.

On Friday night firefighters, police staff and ambulance crews were sent to Pohutu St in response to one of the biggest fires Whakatane has seen in a long time. I was there, along with a large number of people from our community, shortly after the first fire truck arrived around 9.45pm. I watched our fire volunteers battle with the blaze as gas bottles exploded and walls came tumbling down.

I was not there at 2.30am when some of the firefighters went home for a shower and a coffee before returning at 4.30am to continue dampening down hot spots. I was not there while our police force manned the cordons throughout the night to keep our community safe.

Well after the sun had come up on Saturday morning I saw one of the Whakatane fire appliances returning to the station from Pohutu St and thought to myself "what a long night".

I have no doubt firefighters, police and ambulance crews were called out again on Saturday to other emergencies.

However, it was Sunday's car crash on the Thornton Bridge that inspired this comment.

I arrived at the scene about 2pm. The carnage on the bridge was horrendous.

Away from the car and truck involved in the head-on smash a man, who I later learned was a doctor, worked alongside a St John worker to try to save the life of a little baby.

A little further along a woman sitting on the bridge railing cradled and comforted a toddler who had been in the crash. Further along still a young girl was being tended to by members of our community who had come across the crash. Together with ambulance staff, they remained beside the girl, offering encouragement while her wounds were tended to.

Just past the girl firefighters worked tirelessly to free the driver of the car while also lending a hand to medics where needed. Police co-ordinated, interviewed and continually checked on the patients. They made sure the helicopter had somewhere to land.

Members of the public had used their own cars to set up cordons at both ends of the bridge and directed traffic toward Eastbank and Westbank Rds.

Many of these emergency workers had worked through Friday night, many had attended a fatal crash within 100m of Sunday's crash only weeks before and probably all of them would have been at their day jobs on Monday.

I cannot do what they do but I can tell everyone how incredible these people are. I salute you all.

Katee Shanks is the editor of Whakatane News, the Rotorua Daily Post's sister community newspaper in Whakatane.