KEY POINTS:
In a letter to the editor published on Saturday, the chairwoman of the Fire Service Commission, Margaret Bazley, rejected my claim that the age of the Fire Service fleet is leading to a breakdown in standards of service and said that fleet procurement was not a matter of concern to the commission.
However, firefighters from one end of the country to the other have been telling me that the state of the urban and rural fire engine fleets is bad and getting worse.
Their view is perhaps best summed up by a veteran chief fire officer of a volunteer Fire Service brigade who wrote: "Your article is absolutely true. The entire Fire Service knows that overall the fleet is very old and it is hard to get parts to keep machines going.
"Various regional officers will quietly acknowledge the situation in private but will never speak up in public for fear of losing their jobs. I hope your excellent article gets government action to help us all before it is too late."
Like all the other firefighters who have been in contact, this one insisted on anonymity. As one explained: "I have to tell you that if we are identified, then we can guarantee to get a formal bollocking or magically find our station and trucks off various improvements lists. So anonymity is essential.
"It is fair to say that there is a bit of an 'old boys' club' in the Fire Service and things can happen for you if you know the right people and do not hack them off."
Another senior firefighter says that the culture imposed by Mike Hall, who is both chief executive and national commander of the Fire Service, and his minions is that everyone toes the line and keeps their mouths shut - or else.
So it seems to me that while Internal Affairs Minister Richard Worth would be wise to question Dame Margaret more closely about the state of the Fire Service fleet, Dame Margaret might be wise to question Mr Hall a bit more closely too.
Last week I wrote that there were 800-odd fire appliances in New Zealand. I was wrong. The 800 applies only to NZ Fire Service (urban) machines. Appliances operated by the National Rural Fire Authority, which also comes under the commission, boost the total to about 1300.
And the firefighting equipment operated by the rural authority is, according to my informants, even older and less reliable than that of the urban brigades.
Then there are a whole heap more operated by rural fire forces which are run by territorial local bodies in their role as rural fire authorities and don't come under the commission.
Being at the bottom of the heap, these rural fire forces use fire engines that are positively ancient since most of them are cast-offs from urban and rural brigades, obtained from the NZ Fire Service for the cost of changing the registration.
Some rural Fire Services, a 15-year rural force volunteer tells me, import second-hand appliances from Australia and Britain which are in better condition than those offered by the NZ Fire Service.
Dame Margaret quotes figures for new machines in the pipeline - 39 being assembled, 46 chassis landed and 33 more en route.
However, I am told by people who know lots about fire appliances that the assembly of the 39 is behind schedule in at least one category and the chassis waiting to be turned into fire engines will be out in the weather for up to three years, which must play havoc with metal and electrics.
Dame Margaret's letter claims that the production schedule incorporates a catch-up phase. This, says my source, is "utter rubbish".
And he provides data which shows that production barely equates to the number of appliances commissioned in the corresponding years in the 1980s.
Dame Margaret says that older appliances end up in quiet stations and that some have very few kilometres on the clock.
But, say firefighters, a fire appliance is a complex machine and roadworthiness is the least of the issues. They say pumps have engagement systems that wear out and all sorts of fittings and systems that deteriorate with age.
Wrote one fireman: "If an old pump should fail at a job for any one of a myriad of reasons, it will certainly result in increased loss of property but equally threatens the safety of the crew who might be inside and relying on the water in the hose they are working with for protection."
