Third of Auckland's fire stations to shift

By WAYNE THOMPSON

A third of metropolitan Auckland's fire stations will be shifted during the next decade to allow emergencies to be reached within five minutes.

Regional fire commander Paul McGill said a review of urban stations had found 10 that were poorly placed to serve high-risk housing areas and rapidly growing populations in greenfields suburbs and those expecting infill and high-rise development.

As a result, a plan was formed to move the stations - albeit just a few kilometres - to where they could give better coverage. The stations are Takapuna, Devonport, East Coast Bays, Henderson, Te Atatu, Ponsonby, St Heliers, Mt Roskill, Papatoetoe and Manukau.

A new single bay station costs about $1.4 million and Mr McGill said the plan would be staged subject to money and land being available.

He said a planning breakthrough had been made using a computer model which identified optimum spots for stations.

The model took account of fire call records, including response times, population growth predictions and housing areas flagged as higher fire risks by the Social Deprivation Index. Replacing and upgrading stations had been delayed until the results became available.

"If you move one [station] it creates a domino effect so you have to be certain about where they should all be placed before you embark on the plan," said Mr McGill.

"We are confident we will have stations in the right place for the foreseeable future.

Two Manukau City stations are already under construction at new sites in Papatoetoe and Manurewa.

The Manurewa move is in response to community and Fire Service concerns.

Manukau fire chief Larry Cocker said the new station would cover the Clendon and Weymouth areas better than from the present site in Wiri. The stations would be operating by Christmas.

However, the effect of the city's rapid growth on fire coverage would have to be monitored, for example, the Flat Bush area alone was expected to become home to 40,000 people in the next 15 years.

The plan to shift Takapuna and Devonport Fire Stations is being questioned by community boards. Devonport Fire Station in Lake Rd was built only a decade ago.

Mr McGill said planners who had placed the station near the end of a peninsula had not had the benefit of computer modelling and an overall strategy for urban Auckland.

Devonport crews attend about 200 calls a year compared with Takapuna's 600.

North Shore deputy fire chief Wayne Highet said the Devonport station would move about 1.5km towards Belmont to serve a wider area when Takapuna shifted about 2.5km from its central business district site into the Wairau Valley.

Mr McGill said it was fortunate that most of Auckland's stations were already in the right place. Such stations included Onehunga, which has just been rebuilt on its 1926 site, and the 1924 Remuera station, which is being upgraded.

Mt Roskill is an exception and is tipped for a move west from its 1927 site, only 3km from Onehunga station.