G’day everyone,
You probably noticed after a long quiet spell we recently had a rush of activity—3 calls in 4 days. The most serious was an oil spill in Loop Road. In fact, there was oil all along Tarawera Road, down Loop Road from the quarry to Millar Road and even some oil on the Steep Street/Loop Road corner. The culprit is not known, but there were 2 motor vehicle accidents (MVA) as a result of the spill, after which we made the decision to close Loop Road until Works Infrastructure could clean up the oil. We have also been called to a scrub fire in Millar Road, which caused some damage to an unnamed resident’s house, and a rubbish fire in Millar Road, which turned out to be a false alarm. We have assisted at an MVA in Loop Road, close to the quarry and investigated a potential scrub fire on the peninsula, both responses as a result of calls from local residents. We thank those people for their vigilance.
On the subject of MVAs, any car accident is a potential source of fire—you may recall the big bush fire in California late last year. That was started by a car catching fire after an MVA on the freeway, when the Fire Service was told they were not required! Please call 111 if you come across an MVA anywhere in our area—Okareka side of the reservoir on Tarawera Road hill—and ask for Okareka Fire to be responded. We believe it is always better to be safe than sorry, so we are happy to turn out. By the time police and/or ambulance arrive on the scene, then decide to call for fire service assistance, we could have been well on our way to the incident. But most importantly, what could have been a minor problem initially might well be a major fire due to the delay in calling us.
We are continuing with our training at Rotorua Fire Station—I think some of our newer recruits have got aching muscles in places they didn’t know they had muscles!—and everyone is enjoying it and learning a lot of new skills. If you are interested in the volunteer rural fire brigade, call in to Okareka Fire station any Wednesday night; we’d be delighted to see you.
Take care out there,
Dave Field, Chief Fire Officer, OVRF
You probably noticed after a long quiet spell we recently had a rush of activity—3 calls in 4 days. The most serious was an oil spill in Loop Road. In fact, there was oil all along Tarawera Road, down Loop Road from the quarry to Millar Road and even some oil on the Steep Street/Loop Road corner. The culprit is not known, but there were 2 motor vehicle accidents (MVA) as a result of the spill, after which we made the decision to close Loop Road until Works Infrastructure could clean up the oil. We have also been called to a scrub fire in Millar Road, which caused some damage to an unnamed resident’s house, and a rubbish fire in Millar Road, which turned out to be a false alarm. We have assisted at an MVA in Loop Road, close to the quarry and investigated a potential scrub fire on the peninsula, both responses as a result of calls from local residents. We thank those people for their vigilance.
On the subject of MVAs, any car accident is a potential source of fire—you may recall the big bush fire in California late last year. That was started by a car catching fire after an MVA on the freeway, when the Fire Service was told they were not required! Please call 111 if you come across an MVA anywhere in our area—Okareka side of the reservoir on Tarawera Road hill—and ask for Okareka Fire to be responded. We believe it is always better to be safe than sorry, so we are happy to turn out. By the time police and/or ambulance arrive on the scene, then decide to call for fire service assistance, we could have been well on our way to the incident. But most importantly, what could have been a minor problem initially might well be a major fire due to the delay in calling us.
We are continuing with our training at Rotorua Fire Station—I think some of our newer recruits have got aching muscles in places they didn’t know they had muscles!—and everyone is enjoying it and learning a lot of new skills. If you are interested in the volunteer rural fire brigade, call in to Okareka Fire station any Wednesday night; we’d be delighted to see you.
Take care out there,
Dave Field, Chief Fire Officer, OVRF
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