Dialogue: Rescue service easy target for officials to criticise

By ELEANOR BLACK in geyserland

When an electrical fire started in my office last week I forgot everything I had learned about fire safety.

Instead of calmly assessing the situation, planning my escape route and figuring out how to use the fire extinguisher, I am ashamed to admit I stood still next to my desk, flapped my hands dramatically and squealed like the girl I am.

By the time the Rotorua Fire Service arrived, fewer than 10 minutes after I placed my 111 call, I had managed only to get the extinguisher off the wall and to grab a few precious things from my desk. I was giddy from inhaling burnt plastic and relieved to move outside for fresh air as the professionals suggested.

If it had been left to me, I would be writing this column in chalk on the pavement outside our Pukuatua St office and not using a computer in my comfy cubby hole, which looks no worse for wear, except that a patch of the blue carpet is now black.

Luckily, those of us who scare easily can rely on emergency services to keep their heads.

In Rotorua we are particularly lucky because not only are our firefighters good at what they do, they are extraordinarily friendly and make a scary situation all the more bearable by chatting with the victims and joking them out of their misery.

I have seen this, and been impressed by it, when I have headed to fires, chemical spills and the geothermal eruption in this city, notebook in hand. And now I have experienced it first-hand.

That is why I felt so angry when I heard about the debate surrounding the management of our fire service.

After a serious early morning blaze in Ngongotaha, about 5km north-west of Rotorua, there were claims that the service, which sent three crews to the fire, would not have been able to respond to another incident at the same time.

District councillors got into a right flap about the supposed danger to which the city had been exposed and Mayor Graeme Hall (who, to his credit, voiced support for the service) asked for a report.

Chief fire officer Wayne Bedford explained that one of the crews at the Ngongotaha blaze was simply there in a support role and could easily have responded to any other incident in the city. It is standard procedure to send a support vehicle manned with fully prepped firefighters, just in case they are needed.

When the fluorescent light in my office burst into flame, melted its protective plastic casing and threw flames onto the carpet, a whole gaggle of firefighters turned up - even though the fire was undoubtedly the smallest they had seen in weeks.

A support crew parked their truck behind the first, ready to pitch in. This served several purposes. If fire broke out anywhere else in the city, they were poised to hit it even faster than if they had been sitting at the station playing cards. It made all of us at the Herald office feel safe. And it created an excellent late afternoon diversion for curious passers-by, including our colleagues at the local paper, who left as soon as they realised we were not going to give them a story.

Once the danger passed, the fire crew offered helpful suggestions about what we should do next - notify the insurance company, call an electrician, and clean up the caustic soda which had landed on my computer when the fire was put out.

Apparently caustic soda can corrode electronics (another useful fact provided by our firefighters).

Having seen them in action, I am confident that our fire service fulfils every one of their goals - to educate the public, to reduce property damage in case of a fire, and to prevent fires.

I feel better knowing they are there, much like I feel better knowing there are police on duty 24 hours a day and that I have locks on my doors. And I bet those naysayers at the district council also gain a sense of security from the existence of our fire service - and that they would not hesitate to call if fire threatened them.