The stranded fire truck on the side of the road.
Rotorua firefighters were left stranded roadside after their truck broke down while responding to a crash.
Firefighters noticed a “burning” smell coming from their “front-runner” truck, which overheated on its way to the October 5 car crash on State Highway 5, south of Rotorua.
The media have reported multiple incidents of faults impacting fire trucks hin recent weeks.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union is preparing to strike for better pay, staffing, operational resources and conditions on October 17.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand told the Rotorua Daily Post there had been “underinvestment” in its fleet in the past 15 years.
Its 1300 firefighting trucks across New Zealand would receive $20 million in upgrades each year for the next three years, and 78 trucks were currently on order, it said.
Rotorua senior station officer Des Chan, also the local union representative, said a failed thermostat was the problem in the October 5 incident.
The truck carried critical firefighting gear, meaning the crew was forced to wait almost two hours for a service agent.
Rotorua’s two response trucks were sent to the crash — the pump for firefighting and the rescue tender. When the pump truck broke down, the rescue tender had to do both jobs, Chan said.
This was significant as there was no spare rescue truck for the wider 70km area if another emergency call came in, he said.
The stricken pump - a nine-year-old MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg) model - was the city’s main workhorse, Chan said
Their “best truck” had needed mechanical attention at least 29 times this year, he said.
Chan said the crew had to rely on a 27-year-old back-up truck to cover “big distances” across the central Lakes region when it was out of action.
“All our fleet is starting to deteriorate.”
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union posted about the Rotorua incident on social media, saying: “The truck’s cooked, the crew’s stuck. So if you’re passing by, give them a toot; they’re not going anywhere”.
Chan was “concerned”.
He was a “lifer” and had been a professional firefighter for 37 years.
He said he had never seen fire trucks breaking down and needing repairs this often.
The Rotorua incident reflected a bigger national problem, he said.
On October 7, RNZ reported an Auckland firefighting crew was stuck on Ponsonby Rd after the accelerator on their Grey Lynn station truck snapped. It left them unable to respond to a Herne Bay fire.
Just over a week ago, a faulty Hawke’s Bay fire truck was reported to be bursting water uncontrollably.
Hawke’s Bay union president Shane Cunningham told Hawke’s Bay Today their frontline appliances were breaking down weekly.
Chan said; “It really gets to us when we know that we don’t get there ...
“If we break down going to a call, they’re not going to say the truck broke down, they’re going to say the firefighters didn’t turn up.”
He said firefighters worked on “confidence” - the ability to walk into a burning building when everyone else runs out.
Their confidence was “slowly getting watered down”, and firefighters felt “worn down” and “guilty” about being unable to do their job properly.
They were often “disillusioned”.
Equipment failures sat among other issues, Chan said.
Like in neighbouring Tauranga, Chan said staff shortages had led to stations being unable to muster full crews, and some staff were working overtime.
Some were working an extra 14 hours.
Chan told the Rotorua Daily Post he was doing a 24-hour shift this weekend, 8am Friday to 8am Saturday.
He said the assumption that firefighters could always sleep at night was wrong. They were always ready to respond to the emergency alarm in “seconds” and would return filled with adrenaline.
A traumatic call often meant lying awake.
Chan said Rotorua firefighters attended an average of 1400 incidents a year, including car crashes, natural disasters, and medical emergencies.
Chan feared if the situation was not changed, the cost would be someone’s life or someone’s “memories”.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said there had been “underinvestment” in its fleet in the last 15 years.
The age of some trucks was part of a legacy of deferred purchasing of new vehicles by predecessor organisations, the spokesperson said.
The organisation maintained a fleet of about 1300 firefighting trucks, which would receive $20 million in upgrades each year for the next three years.
Seventy-eight trucks were on order, and the first were starting to arrive.
All fire trucks were kept in fully operational condition regardless of age, the spokesperson said, with a proactive servicing regime and worn parts replaced as required.
The Rotorua truck’s faulty thermostat had been replaced, and the vehicle was back in service, they said.
Fire and Emergency was “comfortable” it had the “appropriate number” of paid firefighters, and Rotorua was “fully staffed”.
Illness, training and leave could take people away from work.
“We utilise overtime, call-backs and move people and resources as needed to ensure we prioritise the safety of communities, and this is what occurred in Rotorua.”
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.