G'day All,
First things first, I want to clear the air a bit. Recently a member of the community had the unfortunate luck to require our services. In the event, he felt it appropriate to write a letter to the editor of the LORRA newsletter in which he stated "it took the fire brigade 15 minutes to arrive in which time his neighbours had extinguished the fire with a garden hose." I want to reassure the community that our response and actions were totally misrepresented by those remarks. When we are called out every action and the time is recorded by the communications center in Auckland. Their log records the following:
❖ Lake 651 (our Ford fire truck) alerted at 16:04
❖ Lake 651 proceeding to incident at 16:10
❖ Lake 651 first appliance in attendance at 16:12
❖ Lake 651 stop message fire out–mopping up at 16:25
❖ Lake 651 back on station at 16:56
The 111 call center had 4 phone calls regarding this fire—none from the property owner—and basically 5 people spent an hour of their time on a Sunday afternoon sorting out this person's self-created problem. Now I want to assure you all that the fire brigade will turn out to any incident that we are called to attend. We hold no grudges, we are volunteers and proud of our record and abilities. We cannot understand the reasons for the derogatory remarks in the previous article, but I trust that the community will not lose confidence in our ability to react and respond appropriately from what was written. And that's enough on that subject, I think.
You may not be aware that Okareka fire is also a co-responder for St. John ambulance. We have oxygen, a heart defibrillator (heart attack crash machine) and first aid training. If you have medical skills or you would like to assist us in this area, please contact us and we would be delighted to have you 'on board'. One last thing, if you have converted your heating to gas with those large outside gas cylinders, could you let us know please. In the event of a fire it helps us to know what hazards are on site so that we can keep everybody safe.
Take care out there,
Dave Field,
Chief Fire Officer, Okareka Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade
First things first, I want to clear the air a bit. Recently a member of the community had the unfortunate luck to require our services. In the event, he felt it appropriate to write a letter to the editor of the LORRA newsletter in which he stated "it took the fire brigade 15 minutes to arrive in which time his neighbours had extinguished the fire with a garden hose." I want to reassure the community that our response and actions were totally misrepresented by those remarks. When we are called out every action and the time is recorded by the communications center in Auckland. Their log records the following:
❖ Lake 651 (our Ford fire truck) alerted at 16:04
❖ Lake 651 proceeding to incident at 16:10
❖ Lake 651 first appliance in attendance at 16:12
❖ Lake 651 stop message fire out–mopping up at 16:25
❖ Lake 651 back on station at 16:56
The 111 call center had 4 phone calls regarding this fire—none from the property owner—and basically 5 people spent an hour of their time on a Sunday afternoon sorting out this person's self-created problem. Now I want to assure you all that the fire brigade will turn out to any incident that we are called to attend. We hold no grudges, we are volunteers and proud of our record and abilities. We cannot understand the reasons for the derogatory remarks in the previous article, but I trust that the community will not lose confidence in our ability to react and respond appropriately from what was written. And that's enough on that subject, I think.
You may not be aware that Okareka fire is also a co-responder for St. John ambulance. We have oxygen, a heart defibrillator (heart attack crash machine) and first aid training. If you have medical skills or you would like to assist us in this area, please contact us and we would be delighted to have you 'on board'. One last thing, if you have converted your heating to gas with those large outside gas cylinders, could you let us know please. In the event of a fire it helps us to know what hazards are on site so that we can keep everybody safe.
Take care out there,
Dave Field,
Chief Fire Officer, Okareka Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade
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