Recycling plant firefighters' lives were at 'immediate risk'

A rare 'mayday' call was issued by the two firefighters who were stranded above a huge blaze at a recycling plant last week, because their lives were in "immediate" danger, says the Professional Firefighters Union.

Two firefighters became trapped 10 to 15 metres above the fire that broke out on Thursday at the plant in Auckland's Glenfield on the North Shore.

New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union national vice president Martin Campbell told RNZ that "everything that could go wrong did go wrong" with the ageing aerial truck the two veteran firefighters were in.

"The truck had broken down, they were stuck, they were unable to get themselves to safety."

But Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) says while the Mayday emergency call is "rare", crews are trained to "proactively" use the procedure. The organisation also told RNZ new aerial trucks are on the way.

Aerial appliances are large ladder trucks that can squirt water from above the fire, and reach into places firefighters can not reach when they are on the ground, explained Campbell.

When the truck broke down, Campbell said the firefighters in the ladder truck basket tried "everything they were trained to do to get them out of the dangerous scenario they were in".

Campbell said those emergency procedures "all failed as well," and the firefighters were stuck high above a "very rapidly increasing fire," where they were being enveloped by the smoke and burning products.

One of the officers removed his gloves, Campbell said, to try and make it easier to press some buttons but it was "way too hot" so immediately put his gloves back on.

"So that just goes to show how hot it was up in that basket."

Many of the trucks are computer operated, and the computer "for whatever reason shut down, and told the truck to stop working and it turned everything off", Campbell said.

"There's supposed to be manual bypasses that you can bypass the computer, and manually use electric hydraulics to get the basket to a place of safety."

When the firefighters tried the emergency backup, that did not work as well.

Campbell said an attempt to open a lever that would allow them to "manually wind the truck to a place of safety".

"From what I understand the lever broke off when one of the firefighters tried to turn that lever."

Campbell said the firefighters recognised they were in a dangerous position and were being exposed to the fire, so they put in a 'mayday',

"Firefighters don't do this willy nilly, it's very rarely done, and it's only done when firefighters lives are at risk, immediate risk."

Another ladder truck that was going to be used to fight the blaze was then redirected to rescue the firefighters in the basket.

Campbell could not recall the last time there was a mayday call when firefighters lives were "directly in danger".

There was one a few months ago, but Campbell said this was only a "precautionary mayday" because they had lost track of a firefighter's location.

"It would probably be a year or two since we've had a serious mayday where firefighters lives have been directly and immediately in danger."

When asked if he could recall a mayday situation due to malfunctioning equipment, Campbell said: "Not off the top of my head - I can't think of it."

FENZ explained the mayday procedure is declared in an emergency situation. That could be where a firefighter "may be affected by significant injury, lost, trapped, unaccounted for, or disorientated to a degree that assistance will be needed".

A spokesperson for FENZ said while they were rare, crews were trained to proactively use the mayday procedure.

'They expect an awful lot' out of trucks

"The truck is old," Campbell said. The truck will be 15 years old soon, "so it's certainly getting up there in age".

"The truck that broke down that night with the two firefighters in it is not due for replacement in the foreseeable future either," Campbell said.

"If this was most overseas brigades, this truck would have been retired by now. Unfortunately, Fire and Emergency decides to keep these aerial trucks for up to 20 years.

"They expect an awful lot out of their trucks."

Campbell said the union wanted FENZ to recognise "up to 15 years as an absolute maximum for the lifespan of the truck".

But he said the truck should also be transitioned out of a "front-running truck" by years 10-15 to a "relief truck" that will only be utilised some of the time, while a main truck is away for servicing or under repair.

FENZ said in response to the incident the "safety and well-being of our people is of prime importance".

The organisation confirmed a full investigation will be carried out into the appliance incident, and the appliance will "remain off the run until we have remedied the fault and it is tested to be fully operational".

"The appliance is now at the workshops for cleaning and testing and at this time we have been informed that they have not been able replicate the fault that occurred during the fire."

Another aerial appliance from Hamilton was brought through in response at the time, FENZ said, but it was not required at the fire.

"It stood by at Auckland central fire station, returning to Hamilton later in the evening."

Campbell said there was nothing to replace this specific truck in Auckland at the moment.

"We don't have the back up trucks available in Auckland.

"Whilst this ladder truck is off the run, it's just being replaced with a normal fire truck. So now Auckland is one short of one of these big heavy aerial trucks."

He said if there was another major fire like the one in Glenfield last week, "we won't have the capability that we have to be able to put the fire out or carry out any rescues from people in upper floors".

The union's issue with FENZ was that multiple reviews were conducted, but the organisation "ignores - either willingly or unwillingly - the recommendations of those reviews", said Campbell.

He wanted FENZ to "pay attention" to what past reports and reviews have told them.

He referenced the SkyCity fire which was "almost six years ago now" which had an independent review that recommended "FENZ complete its national aerial strategy with haste".

"Five years later they still have not done that. The organisation has not produced a document that that review told them they should produce."

He wanted the Minister of Internal Affairs - who oversees FENZ - to ask some "hard questions" of the board, the chief executive and leadership team.

"Why are recommendations being ignored?

"Why are priorities so screwed up? And where is all the money actually going?"

Campbell said the organisation gets "more than half a billion dollars a year" from levies, "where is the money going because it certainly doesn't seem to be going on its operational fleet?".

FENZ regional manager Ron Devlin told RNZ the organisation maintained one of the "largest fleets of commercial vehicles in the motu".

It had more than 1280 fire trucks and specialist response vehicles.

"We maintain them to a high standard and service them regularly," said Devlin.

"We have an ongoing new appliance replacement programme which purchases new trucks and disposes of older trucks according to a plan."

Regarding aerial ladder trucks, Devlin told RNZ the organisation had ordered "five new heavy aerial aerial fire trucks and they are in the process of having their body builds completed".

"One 45-metre truck will go to Auckland and a 32-metre truck to Hamilton, while the three 32-metre aerial fire trucks will go to Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin respectively."

'No fat in the system' - local MP

Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick said the situation is "deeply, deeply concerning".

She was glad there was now a spotlight on the issue of ageing equipment, but was concerned it had come off the back of a "potential tragedy".

What she had heard talking to front-line firefighters was that a mayday call was an "incredibly rare situation".

"They are absolutely tough as nails, they would be the last ones to raise the alarm if it doesn't need to be raised."

She pointed to firefighters doing "DIY on the frontlines" during the Auckland Anniversary floods, and Cyclone Gabrielle, "working with machines that are not up to scratch, and that sometimes they end up falling apart".

She said the culture of "just making it work" - which many new firefighters were being inducted into - showed innovation, but was not allowing them to "do their job properly to keep New Zealanders safe".

Swarbrick said that should concern everybody.

"When we are experiencing machinery failures that are putting front-line firefighters at risk of life or death kind of situations, then we seriously need to be interrogating what's happening here."

Swarbrick also referred to the SkyCity fire review that recommended a strategy for the fleet, which at that time "we all knew was ageing, and could experience the likes of these mechanical faults and issues".

She said the strategy had not been implemented: "For some reason, it has sat on ice.

"Once again, this brings us to the conclusion that we have to lift the hood on what's happening at FENZ."

She explained that front-line firefighters had felt a lot of "anger and frustration" since FENZ was established in 2017.

"It feels like while the budget has increased, and the levy has increased that's paid for by regular New Zealanders, that the organisation is not seeing that trickle down to those on the front-line."

She said there were some "fundamental questions" that need to be asked around the operation of FENZ.

As a local MP, she said it was "incredibly alarming that there is simply no fat in the system".

"This is what we see when these aged pieces of machinery are moved around the country in order to backfill what are huge gaps, and that then leaves other communities exposed where these machines have been moved from."

Swarbrick said it's "simply not good enough" and not a level of emergency response that "many New Zealanders would expect of their public service."

Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden was asked about the issue, and said the recent fire on Auckland's North Shore would have shocked the local community.

"I thank all the FENZ personnel who fought to bring the fire under control."

But she told RNZ she would not be commenting further at this stage.

"FENZ has an active investigation open on their operations that evening.

"I will expect to see the results of their investigation."

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