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The Fire Brigade is ready

May 12, 2015 May 2015, Regular Features No Comments

Fire-Brigade Are we ready? It’s a question answered every time the siren sounds. But to be sure we have the tools and training sufficient for the job, strategic and tactical plans are made for all types of emergencies that may occur. The Brigade is currently reviewing our own emergency response plan for a significant, hopefully unlikely community scale disaster.
The earthquake in Nepal and recent strong 6.3 quake in St Arnaud on the South Island reminds us of the importance of being prepared. The Brigade station on Texas Street has a pre-wired emergency generator that quickly powers the stations essential services including communications, so vital in such disasters.

We are now investigating the purchase of dedicated lockers to contain emergency food, medical and other supplies for rescue and emergency response crews following a community disaster. Donations from the Pukemanu Fishing club auction have been earmarked for that purpose. We are also considering the installation of a large water tank behind the station to provide emergency potable water in the event the town supply is interrupted.

Of course, the most direct help for citizens after a disaster is what each person has prepared at home or at work. See the web site http://www.getprepared.org.nz/ for good advice.
We encourage a personal safety check at home. Make sure there is a “clear metre distance around the heater”, especially portable gas and electric ones, get the chimney cleaned and test smoke alarms. One of our recent calls was for the ignition of a faulty gas heater that could have been very serious but for the work of the brigade to neutralise the cylinder and remove the heater from the house.

We had 8 callouts since the last report, 3 of which were good intent calls but upon investigation did not require us to intervene. Two were bonfires or rubbish. One was a call due to smell of electrical burning which turned out to be an unrelated smell. ‘Good intent’ calls are from someone who is concerned about what they see but upon our investigation does not require our intervention.

These calls are important in keeping the community safe and are never seen as an annoyance. One call was due to a faulty smoke detector. Two calls were to assist the ambulance staff. One crop burn off got out of control and brought under control in trees. One call was for the faulty gas heater mentioned above.

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