Firefighter defends handling of deadly scrub blaze

Far North District Council principal rural fire officer Myles Taylor

A senior Northland firefighter has rejected criticism about the way a fire at the Karikari Peninsula on November 30, 2011, was handled by emergency services.

The major scrub fire claimed the lives of two men in a helicopter.

Far North District Council principal rural fire officer Myles Taylor gave evidence during an inquest in Whangarei yesterday into the deaths of Kerikeri pilot John "Prickles" de Ridder, 69, and Department of Conservation ranger William Macrae, 54, of Awanui.

The pair were on a fire reconnaissance flight on the evening of November 30 when their helicopter crashed into the sea off the Karikari Peninsula.

While flying over the fire, the men had been directed by the Auckland fire service communications towards five people trapped between the advancing flames and the sea, before contact with the helicopter was lost.

Mr Taylor said that a significant amount of content in a report that looked at, among other things, processes used in the deployment and co-ordination of fire crews, had been biased and impractical.

Paul Baker, manager rural fire for the National Rural Fire Authority, had highlighted during the inquest on Monday what he described as a number of failures in terms of co-ordination between emergency services during the incident.

But Mr Taylor said one had to understand the considerable distances firefighters travelled in Northland and the fact that the first few hours of large fires were often chaotic in terms of firefighting.

As well, he said November was a busy month when firefighters worked every day.

Since he was helping at a major fire when informed about the blaze in Karikari Peninsula about 7.20pm on November 30, Mr Taylor said he spoke to Alan Macrae from the Department of Conservation, who was on the ground.

Mr Taylor said he wanted to determine the firefighting resources involved and that he trusted Mr Macrae's decision-making.

At that time, he said, he was not aware a helicopter had been dispatched but even if he had known, it would not have surprised him because they had been used successfully in firefighting in the past 10 years.

Mr Taylor said Mr de Ridder and Mr Macrae were experienced and would not have flown if they thought it was dangerous at that time and in those weather conditions.

"The National Rural Fire Authority was reluctant to declare a regional emergency and if we had another fire at the same time, we'd have struggled to cope," he said.