Firefighters are “frustrated” by a lack of planning from higher-ups before the latest bout of floods hit Auckland yesterday morning.
The Professional Firefighters Union says calls from crews - pleading with senior management to prepare capabilities the night before the rain - fell on deaf ears.
Despite the warning signs, those on the ground say Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) continues to take a reactive approach rather than a proactive one.
Speaking to Breakfast, firefighter Josh Nicholls said lessons learnt during the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods hadn’t been acted on.
“We’ve captured a lot of lessons learnt earlier on, and here we are again, yesterday experiencing the same weather-type incidents,” he said.
“We’re frustrated at not seeing any change to our approach to how we’re doing this business.”
Much of their issue comes from the request for a piece of specialist equipment, the technical rescue tender, to be staffed ahead of the rain - allowing a quicker response.
The truck is used to help with rescue efforts in landslips and requires a specialist staff.
“Monday night, I spent quite a bit of time with our management, asking if we were going to stand up our technical rescue tender full time,” said Auckland firefighter Jeff Shrimpton.
“The answer was just a flat no.”
Nicholls said firefighters shouldn’t have to speak to the media to have their concerns heard.
“At the end of the day, I don’t understand why it is so hard and why we’re having to have this battle to stand up capabilities prior to a known weather event.
“We shouldn’t be having to sit here in front of the media to have these conversations.
“For capability and functions that the New Zealand public actually believe are already stood up and readily available."
He wants to see upper management at FENZ take accountability surrounding response shortfalls, picking up lessons from earlier extreme weather events.
“There are some egos that need to be looked at in our senior command levels.
“They need to take some long, strong hard accountability of embracing the lessons learnt earlier in the year.”
Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick said firefighters on the ground are being held back from doing their jobs by “bureaucracy” at the top of the ladder.
“They felt as though there was a disconnect between those at the top of the officialdom and the bureaucracy and those that were on the shop floor.”
The MP, who is an ally of the firefighters union, said she’s been talking to Emergency Management Minister Kerian MacNulty - who said there has been investment.
“But that has not been trickling down to factory outcomes for those on the frontline,” she said.
She wants to see that funding invested in better equipment, staffing and pay.
FENZ responds
In a statement to 1News, a FENZ spokesperson said the organisation underwent “extensive” pre-planning before the rain hit.
“This included an afternoon briefing with our partner agencies to ensure we had a coordinated response to this event.
“It was decided at this point we would stand up our Region Coordination Centre on Tuesday, and it was fully staffed on Tuesday morning.”
As for the technical rescue tender, they said it is “always ready to be operationally available”.
“The technical rescue tender was used by an Urban Search and Rescue team to give additional support to the response.
“It was provided to USAR at 1030hrs for their use after briefings from our partner agency weather and geotechnical experts.”
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