Struggle with cliffside rescue ‘tip of the iceberg’, firefighter says

Only police can authorise an air ambulance under current rules. Photo / Getty Images

By Phil Pennington of RNZ

The career firefighters’ union says a delay getting rescuers to Hahei where a girl was trapped on a cliff face is just the tip of the iceberg.

In January, police refused Fire and Emergency a helicopter to get a line rescue team from Hamilton to Hahei, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. They had to drive.

Police told RNZ they mistakenly concluded the girl was dead and that it was appropriate to send rescuers by road, not air.

New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union vice-president Martin Campbell told Midday Report that the problems ran wider than just the Hahei case.

“I don’t think it is an isolated incident ... I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately.”

“I certainly know from personal experience, being based at Auckland City where there is another lines rescue crew, we have faced delays in our ability to get to rescue incidents.”

A law change was needed, and police and Fire and Emergency NZ needed to agree on a better approach in the interim, he said.

The Fire and Emergency NZ call log from the Hahei rescue stated “police wont [sic] approve helo response because of the cost”.

“This is the first I’ve actually specifically seen cost mentioned,” Campbell said. “Other issues I have seen [are] interagency squabbles as to who is actually in charge and who has the authority.”

Comment has been requested from police and Police Minister Mark Mitchell.

Emails among senior Fire and Emergency NZ personnel immediately after the Hahei rescue referred to it as a “further instance” of line rescue crews being delayed because of police not approving an air ambulance helicopter.

St John must get police approval to send a chopper to a non-injury emergency.

Fire and Emergency NZ national manager of response capability Ken Cooper, in response to Campbell, told RNZ on Thursday that their standard operating procedure after a 111 call for rescue was to pass all information immediately on to police as the lead agency, which then co-ordinated the rescue.

“It is also our practice to dispatch our resources immediately to the incident to assist,” Cooper said.

“There are no communication challenges between our agencies, and we work well together.”

The Hahei Fire and Emergency NZ email trail showed Cooper was alerted on the Monday following the Saturday midnight rescue, and briefly replied that he would “prioritise a meeting with the relevant partner agencies this week with the intent on resolving the matter”.

RNZ has lodged Official Information Act requests with police and Fire and Emergency NZ to find out more.

Hato Hone St John ran the air ambulance service under a contract with Health New Zealand. It said in cases where a person was not injured but required rescue, co-ordination and tasking was done by either of the country’s two recognised search and rescue co-ordinating authorities – police or the Rescue Coordination Centre.

“The co-ordination of search and rescue operations requires specialist expertise to ensure both the person in need of rescue and their rescuers are as safe as possible,” it said.