Dear Fire and Emergency New Zealand,

On 09 November 2024, at approximately 0042 hours, Fire and Emergency responded Huntly volunteer crews to a house fire in the Huntly township. Incident reference F4083978.

Word of mouth from occupants and volunteer fire brigade members indicates that there was a significant delay in Fire and Emergency resources attending this incident, and that there was a lack of follow up from the Communications Centre to dispatch further appliances, which may have contributed towards the loss of this property. The initial indication was it was over 10 minutes before a response was made.

As a New Zealand Citizen, I am requesting the following information under the Official Information Act:

- Incident Report for F4083978;
- Total number of 111 calls made for this incident;
- Audio recordings of all related 111 calls;
- Audio recordings of all related radio messages;
- Total number of volunteers who responded to this incident;
- Total number of communications staff who were on duty at the time of this incident;
- Any communications (E.G. Teams, Emails, Messaging) related to this incident;
- What is the standard, or required timeframe that Fire and Emergency resources have to respond?;
- Is there any follow up process that may be initiated by either the crews or the Communications Centres, in order to dispatch the next nearest resources?;
- Is there a performance measuring standard (such as KPIs) that Fire and Emergency use in either the organisational operations or in the Communications Centres?;
- Is there a lack of Fire and Emergency resources or operational coverage in the Huntly township?;
- Does Fire and Emergency accept that this incident was a failure, or did not meet the expected standards with regard to the operations and commitment to the Fire and Emergency Act 2017?

Yours faithfully,

Mark Grayson

Dear Official Information Requests,

I do NOT require the names and contact details of your staff or volunteers.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Grayson

Dear Official Information Requests,

Thank you providing the information for this disturbing incident.

Referring to your reply to point 3, "we have decided to withhold the recordings of all 111 calls in full under section 9(2)(ba)(i) of the OIA".
- Can you please provide a transcript of the 111 calls relating to this incident, in a similar format as the transcript provided of the radio messages?

The provided radio messages (WAV files in the ZIP folder) do not match the messages that are in the report.
- Can you please advise why these recorded messages may differ?
- Can the text in an incident report be altered or removed?

A radio message in "Call1150814504.wav" and "Call1150821774.wav" includes the address of the incident, whereas the incident report is blacked out per Section 9(2)(a).
- Is there a reason the address has been included in the audio, or has this been overlooked before being released?

Referring to your reply to point 6, "The total number of communications staff on duty were three shift managers and 11 dispatchers"
- Can you confirm if this was the staffing level in a single Communications Centre or nationally, and if possible, can you provide the staffing level per Communications Centre including if there were any shortages?

Referring to Appendix Four, all communications that were identified as relating to the incident, an email on Monday, November 11, 2024 at 3:57pm indicates "When I spoke to them [the Shift Manager] about it, it was a Dispatcher error that was dealt with at the time."
This was only three hours after an earlier email saying "The watch is working again on Wednesday, so I will follow up then".

- Has the staff member been included in the email follow up of this incident, or just the Shift Manager?
- Has the staff member, or other such staff been involved in any disciplinary action?
- Has the Shift Manager addressed this with the staff, to prevent this occurring in future?
- Has the Shift Manager taken any responsibility for the team/watches actions during this incident, as they overlook the shift, or has that been put solely onto the Dispatcher involved?
- Can you provide any documentation relating to any follow up emails to the individual, watch or centre that were sent by the Centre Manager or Shift Manager after this incident occurred?
- What support has been provided by the Communications Centre, or the Shift Manager as a result of this?

Yours sincerely,

Mark Grayson