In New Zealand's war on terror, charity begins at home

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Rescue experts are pleading for money to set up a specialist September 11-style search squad in Auckland that could save the lives of people trapped in collapsed buildings.

Teams equipped with remote search cameras and sonic detectors are established in Palmerston North and Christchurch.

But rescuers in Auckland, the country's largest population centre and host to a potentially "soft" terror target, the America's Cup, are having to practise without heavy-duty equipment needed to save lives when big buildings collapse.

Senior firefighter Roy Breeze, who is co-ordinating work to set up an urban search and rescue task force, said it could take three to four years to get enough money from the Government for a well-equipped team to operate at full strength.

As images are beamed around the world of the Kenyan suicide bombing and Australia goes on heightened terror alert Mr Breeze's 42-member team-in-waiting is preparing applications for grants to let it do its job properly from the middle of next year.

If approved, the money will be to top up joint funding from the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

"I'd be annoyed if something happened in Auckland or wherever while we are not up and running," Mr Breeze told the Herald.

The group is losing no time in rehearsing for its new role. Paramedics and trauma doctors are joining high-angle rescue experts and structural engineers in regular exercises.

The Palmerston North and Christchurch teams of specialist firefighters and other rescue experts have advanced equipment such as remote search cameras and sonic and heat detectors to find victims in the rubble of flattened buildings.

Palmerston North also has heavy concrete-cutting equipment.

Fire Service national rescue manager Bernie Rush confirmed that priority was given to completing the first two teams, one on each main island, before taking on the extra financial burden of establishing one in Auckland. This included training search dogs and structural engineers with what money was available this financial year, he said.

Equipment had cost just under $1 million.

The urban search and rescue concept began in Palmerston North in the mid-1990s, where a small team was boosted to about 35 members last year, then on a smaller scale with a 30-strong group in Christchurch.

Mr Rush said though the initial impetus was a threat of multiple building collapses from earthquakes, terrorism was identified as a risk well before September 11 last year.

Palmerston North was chosen as the pioneering site because of its central location and closeness to military bases for training purposes, and to two airports for rapid responses to emergencies, including in Auckland.

Mr Breeze said he could understand a desire to ensure the first two teams were operating at full strength, but the Aucklanders were keen to do what they could to get cracking as soon as possible because it would take six to eight hours for help to arrive from Palmerston North.

He said the transfer of the Air Force's heavy-lifting Iroquois helicopter fleet from Hobsonville to Ohakea last year was a big loss to Auckland's rescue capability, but plenty of expertise remained in the region.

Firefighters, police and ambulance services would be the first to respond to terrorism scares such as suspected anthrax deliveries, but Defence Force bomb disposal squads are gearing up for potential chemical and biological threats.

The Government has given the military $1.84 million to buy equipment for detecting chemical and biological attacks, hazard production software, and extra protective clothing for bomb squads in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Their annual operating budget has also been increased by $185,000 as part of a $30 million counter-terrorism funding package which the Government has spread over three years across the armed forces, the police, and intelligence, customs and immigration services.

As well as establishing a 12-member terrorism investigation and intelligence group, the police have appointed two senior officers to liaison jobs in Washington and London, and posted 26 more staff at the country's six main airports.

The Customs Service has set up a 28-member "risk response" group to check ships and aircraft with the help of information sent electronically from overseas ports, while immigration officers develop a computer network designed to keep terrorists at bay.

But these efforts are dwarfed by Australian plans to spend $6.71 billion to boost security with such weapons as new aircraft and missiles, a second anti-terrorist tactical assault group, and a stockpile of medications, antidotes and vaccines.

Herald feature: Defence