Fire truck takes off without crew

Photo / Nigel Longstaff

An investigation is underway after a unmanned fire truck took off from an fire station, rolled down a hill and crossed over a busy highway before coming to rest down a bank metres short of a house.

The truck was parked at the Silverdale fire station just north of Auckland last night when it began moving off to the astonishment of its volunteer crew, Fire Service fleet manager Ross Taylor said.

The Silverdale station is on top of a hill just before the main highway descends into Orewa and the fire truck ran about 60 metres down the hill before it crossed the road and ran over the bank, dropping about 10 metres before stopping 10m short of a house.

"Luckily it didn't hit anything or anyone. We are just so, so lucky there was no traffic as it crossed the road and there was no one walking along the footpath," Mr Taylor said.

He said there was "quite a slope" from the fire station down the hill to the main highway.

A heavy haulage truck was needed to haul the fire truck back up the hill and it was taken to the Fire Services Otahuhu repair base where it would be assessed.

"The bumper and cab has taken a bit of a hammering but the chassis and body work don't appear to be too bad," he said.

A relief appliance was sent to Silverdale within an hour.

The damaged appliance was under lock and key until the incident had been investigated and once that had been done it would be repaired and returned to service.

- NZPA