Fire Brigade

At 5:45am on April 1, the Brigade was alerted to a forest fire at Kaikuri at Hinakura.  It was the first major forest fire for South Wairarapa since 2008.  Martinborough, Featherston, Tora, Lake Ferry and Ngawi all responded on the initial call out with much more help from much further afield to follow over the next few days. The deployment of these significant resources was under the direction of the National Incident Command Team.
 
As background, there are two divisions under the Fire service Commission in New Zealand.  Urban Brigades (paid and volunteer) are responsible for incidences within the town boundaries and Rural Brigades cover outside those boundaries.  Martinborough, Greytown and Featherston are Urban Brigades, while Tora, Lake Ferry and Ngawi are rural brigades in South Wairarapa.
However, urban brigades are asked to respond outside their urban district when it is likely to be of benefit.  As a result, the Martinborough Brigade has one of the largest response areas in the country bounded by the coasts lines of Hinakura, Tora, Ngawi and Lake Ferry.

From the Martinborough Brigade perspective this large forest fire was a good example of how the two branches of the national fire service work together. The Martinborough crew arrived first and updated other units of the exact location and initial size of the blaze, The crew then met a representative of the land owner to discuss the terrain and consider the options to attack the fire.
As the terrain was very steep, helicopters were quickly requested along with a NZ Fire Service Command Appliance.  Senior Fire Fighter Dean DiBona was taken by helicopter to survey the extent of the fire and was able to translate that to the area maps.  After identifying water resources to fill helicopter buckets and setting up initial command structure, the incident was handed over to the rural fire service around 11am and the crew returned to the station.   Rural fire crews remained to bring the fire under control over the next 3 days.  The National Incident Command Team used the Martinborough station as their headquarters.

During the fire ban, the brigade responded to three rubbish fires which had to be extinguished. There were two motor vehicle collisions, one requiring use of our extrication equipment to free a trapped person.  The ambulance requested assistance on two other medical calls.  There were two monitored fire alarms activated but no action was required by the fire crew.  A truck on fire was extinguished on white Rock Road near Tuturumuri. Lastly, a chimney fire did not require intervention but is a reminder to have that chimney checked and cleaned for peace of mind.
Richard Geisler for CFO Garry Jackson