Hawke's Bay Civil Defence's new six-minute tent could save lives

Imagine an emergency so significant that Hawke's Bay's Civil Defence control room is out of action.

Thanks to a new purchase, within six minutes, emergency management staff could have a giant $45,000 beige tent inflated to work out of.

Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (HBCDEM) on Thursday put its team through its pace, pitching its new Multipurpose Habitation Unit (MHU), an inflatable tent with 40-50 metres of indoor space, designed to be rapidly set up in an emergency situation.

After one practice run, a team of staff from Fire and Emergency NZ, St John Ambulance, and members of the Hawke's Bay Emergency Response Team were able to set up the MHU in sixteen and a half minutes, leaving some room for improvement to reach the six-minute set up time touted under the MHU's design features.

Staff from Fire and Emergency NZ, St John Ambulance, and members of the Hawke's Bay Emergency Response Team setting up the new Multipurpose Habitation Unit. 25 November 2021. Photo / Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Group Manager Ian Macdonald said its main purpose would be as a co-ordination centre for emergencies, but it could also be used for first responder accommodation, triage for health agencies and as support for an oil spill response in distant locations.

"Anything where we didn't have access to hard-standing accommodation and facilities, this is the one we would deploy," Macdonald said.

Macdonald said MHUs could be transported easily across the country for emergency situations, using the Westport flooding of the Buller River as an example.

"When Buller happened three of them went down to Buller, so they just bring them in from other places when they need them."

He said HBCDEM was granted $45,000 for the tent and ancillary equipment like the lights and generator from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Emergency management team leader Charlie Blanch, left, and Hawke's Bay Civil Defence's Ian Macdonald inside the tent. Photo / Warren Buckland

NEMA Team Leader Deployable Capability Charlie Blanch said the extra capacity, which could be put to any purpose, would be really helpful for the eight groups across the country which received funding from NEMA to get a MHU.

"We've had Civil Defence groups use it for everything from a welfare centre, to support land search and rescue and incident control points in the middle of nowhere," Blanch said.

He said NEMA, the New Zealand Medical Assistance Team, Auckland airport and about a dozen other smaller agencies all use MHUs.

"We can turn up to a big multi-agency complex emergency and if there is another agency there, we can join it on and make a larger weathertight structure."

He said the HBCDEM staff wasn't the first group he had taught to set up a MHU.

"During the Buller deployment, the only person familiar with it was myself and I was able to grab about half a dozen people from New Zealand Defence Force who had never put up this tent before and with a bit of instruction we had it up in about 20 minutes."