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Fire officers were stunned yesterday to find fire hydrants on Auckland's busy Queen St had been covered over by contractors carrying out the street's $44 million upgrade.
Deputy chief fire officer Roger McAllister said he was appalled to find, during a small electrical fire on the main street, that the fire hydrants were covered.
In a more serious blaze Queen St "would be stuffed", he said.
McAllister said more than 20 firefighters had searched for nearly half an hour along the road, trying to find an accessible hydrant before prying open a wooden cover they "guessed" was the opening to a water pipe.
Roadworks had blocked off access to all the hydrants from Victoria St to the Britomart transport centre.
"It's only come to our attention now that this is the case, and something has to be done about it fast," McAllister said.
"If this [fire] was more serious, everyone here would be stuffed because we couldn't find a hydrant thanks to the roadworks."
During roadworks, openings to water hydrants are often covered by a wooden plank which can be removed easily.
Planks for fire hydrants are supposed to be labelled with yellow paint. But McAllister's team found the planks had been marked with pink paint and used to cover a range of services - including the occasional hydrant.
"I'm pretty shocked about the whole thing and I will be taking it up with the council," he said.
Tupes Lole, assistant manager of OPSM on Queen St, said she was shocked. "If the roadworks means it takes 20 minutes to find a hydrant then that really scares me.
"It's been bad enough to have all the roadworks out there creating havoc and now they come along with this? It's really unsafe and very scary."
Shop assistant at Cue, Stefanie Winitana, agreed.
"I am speechless, I had no idea they were all blocked off. That's pretty crazy and it actually makes me quite scared."
An Auckland City Council spokeswoman said normal procedure was to have the fire hydrants clearly marked.
"We are sending contractors to go and take a look. We will be following this up with a report on Monday."
