Lost tanker deemed critical

More than $300,000 in damage caused by two 11-year-old arsonists might have been prevented if Masterton still had a water tanker, says the fire service.
Senior Station Officer Mike Cornford said Masterton lost its water tanker, which had the extra water capacity needed to fight bigger fires, five years ago after it failed a certificate of fitness.
In the event of fire the station is loaned water tankers by outside contractors but on Saturday it took 40 minutes before the first tanker arrived on the scene, and another 10 minutes before three more tankers arrived.
"The contractors have to ring their guys up from home, they have to be home to answer the phone, and they have to fill them up with water since the tankers don't sit there ready to go," Mr Cornford said.
Fire engines only have 5-10 minutes' worth of water in them - leaving Masterton firefighters to watch helplessly as the fire engulfed the recycling shed.
"It's not a problem if you have a large forestry fire that will go for a long duration but, if you're talking about property or structures, that burns more quickly and you need rapid response."
Mr Cornford said he had worked for the Masterton service for 30 years and when the service had its own tanker it was used frequently.
"The second truck that went out the door was always our water tanker and that was four, five, six minutes behind the first truck. That's your supply and it's usually crucial to finishing the job off."
The town's last water tanker was bought by Masterton District Council but it was decommissioned five years ago and never replaced.
Peter Bean, the fire service's Wairarapa/Hutt area manager, said there had already been plans to deliver a new 14,000-litre tanker, costing more than $200,000, to Carterton before Christmas.
The tanker was intended to serve the entire Wairarapa and he said it could have reached the recycling shed fire in about 10 minutes from Carterton.
He did not believe there was a great need for Masterton to have its own tanker and Carterton was chosen because it was the central point of Wairarapa.
Carterton Chief Fire Officer Wayne Robinson said that while the new tanker would be a huge asset to the region, they could alway use more tankers in the summer.
"It would be good to have two tankers in the Wairarapa.
"You get a dry summer and you can have two or three fires burning at any one time."
The Fire Commission probably saw Carterton as an optimum place for the tanker since both the town and South Wairarapa were more vulnerable to fire because they had larger rural areas that were not connected to a water reticulation network.
Masterton District Council chief executive Wes ten Hove said because the recycling shed was not in the urban area it was not connected to the water reticulation system.
It would have cost "hundreds of thousands" to connect the shed and the nearby Raumahanga river was intended to supply firefighters.
The council had recently connected Hood Aerodrome to the water network but many other large structures, such as Rathkeale College, were not connected.
Bob Francis, a Masterton member of the Fire Service Commission board, said it was inappropriate for him to comment.