Working Safely In Water External training provider Report
Summary:
The National advisor for Working Safely In Water (WSIW) attended the Flood and Swift Water
Technician training course run by the external training provider Rescue 3 (R3). This course is being
considered for the initial training of FENZ specialist water response teams as part of the WSIW
project. The course content was found relevant and fit for purpose. The training provider was found
to be a competent, professional, and experienced operator that has the longevity and credibility to
provide suitable training to FENZ. Many of FENZ’s partner organisations are using this Training
provider and course for their in-water training needs.
Program overview
The flood and swift water technician course is the first of the foundational skills taught by R3 in the
water space.
This course was organised and run for Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) as part of
their development of powered flood boat teams. This course is the prerequisite to carrying out the
Flood boat operator course under the R3 framework. SLSNZ are building these teams as part of their
inland waterway search and rescue strategy. This is partly funded by NZSAR council as part of their
service level agreement
The course consisted of half a day of theory on day one which covers:
under the Official Information Act 1982
• flood and swift water rescue history
• the R3 history and approach to training
• equipment and equipment standards
• hydrology
• safety
• incident structure
Released
The rest of the course is conducted in the field practically over the next 2.5 days.
Afternoon day one:
• Throw bag techniques
• Wading techniques
• Shallow water entry
Day two:
• Applied hydrology
• Risk identification
• Basic rope rigging and mechanical advantage system for inflatable work platform
positioning
• Defensive/offensive swimming
•
1982
Entry/exit of different water features
• Throw bag techniques applied
• Contact swim rescue
Act
• Tethered swimmer rescue
• PFD quick release use
• Tensioned diagonals swimmer/inflatable work platform
• Scenarios
Day three:
• Scenario work
• Inflatable work platform handling
Information
Background
The Working Safely In Water project has been tasked with producing a twelve-month delivery option
to make the response scape for firefighters safer when reconciling water incidents.
Part of this involves standing up several teams nationally to provide:
Official
• a trainer pool for the wider organisation
• coverage for business as usual calls that involve water
the
• a deployable flood response resource for larger scale events
Outside training providers are being considered to supply the initial training for these teams to
enable time frames to be met and to align Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s foundation skills with
those our partner agencies are developing. (SLSNZ and Coastguard NZ are using R3 for their flood
under
and swift water training as are several NZRT’s)
Course objectives:
To impart risk awareness and mitigation tactics in the urban, flood, and swift water environments.
Structure an incident in water to ensure safe operations can be carried out.
Impart skillsets to self-rescue and rescue others across different incident types.
Released
Findings:
Conclusion:
1982
This course and training provider is the industry standard for water response training currently in
New Zealand. For this reason, our partner agencies are putting their operators through this course. If
Act
FENZ does the same, it will ensure the capabilities of the various organisations will interlock which
will foster the beginning of a common operating picture. This common operating picture is one of
the WSIW project deliverables.
The existing training and competency framework this course can supply will shorten the time for
FENZ to provide water incident coverage across the most populated parts of the country and
enhance the training capacity within FENZ to further increase its capacity over time.
It is the National advisor’s recommendation to use this training package as the launchpad for FENZ’s
working in water specialist water response team development.
Information
Hamiora Taite
Official
National Advisor Te Mahi Haumaru i Rō Wai (Working Safely in Water)
Te Manatū o ngā ratonga ohotata kia haumaru ake ai a Aotearoa │Leading integrated fire and emergency services for a safer New Zealand
the
WE DO THE RIGHT THING WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER WE SERVE AND SUPPORT WE STRIVE TO IMPROVE
under
MANAAKITANGA AUAHATANGA KIA TIKA WHANAUNGATANGA
Released
\\fire.org.nz\Public\National\Response Capability\5. National & International Response
Manager\Working Safety Near Water\Working Safely In Water\15. NZSAR\2020-23 SLSNZ SLA FINAL
SIGNED.pdf
\\fire.org.nz\Public\National\Response Capability\5. National & International Response
Manager\Working Safety Near Water\Working Safely In Water\15. NZSAR\SMT Flood Response and
River Rescue Strategy (003).pdf
\\fire.org.nz\Public\National\Response Capability\5. National & International Response
Manager\Working Safety Near Water\Working Safely In Water\Training resources\Water and Flood
1982
Rescue Manual v6.1NA interactive.pdf
Act
Information
Official
the
under
Released
