Dear Fire and Emergency New Zealand,

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

- Incident Report for F4123512;

- Total number of 111 calls received by the Communications Centre;
- Total number of personnel who attended;
- Total number of Communications centre personnel who were on duty, broken down by centre;

- What Fire and Emergency resources attended this incident?;
- Was there any delay in resources attending this incident?;
- What 'coverage' was maintained by Fire and Emergency while resources attended this incident?;

- Why was this scrap metal fire coded as a "Minor Incident", but in the past others have been coded as a "Structure Fire"? (As displayed on the Incident Reporting website);
- Why is the response between the two incidents below different? (i.e. One has 3 fire trucks respond, and the other has 19).

Takanini Incident, December 1, 2024:
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/12/02/large...

Takanini Incident, January 8, 2025:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/south-auck...

Yours faithfully,

Mark Grayson

Dear Official Information Requests,

Thank you for providing this information. I have further questions based on your reply.

Referring to the Incident Report:
1. Is there a procedure in place for scrapyard fire response or event coding at the Communications Centre?
2. Was the calltaker who took the first call to this incident aware of what they were dealing with? Can Fire and Emergency confirm this was a member of the Communications Management Team who took the call?
3. Why was a second pump responded only one minute after the initial turnout, but the incident type not amended?
4. Why did the Shift Manager in the Communications Centre not upgrade this event to a Structure Fire, considering a second pump was immediately added and incidents of the same nature have been treated as such previously?
5. Why was an aerial appliance not initially also responded or considered given the nature of the high risk industrial environment and material, as well as firefighting capabilities at scrapyards?
6. The initial sitrep indicated a Senior Firefighter (SFF) was in charge of the incident, was there an officer in attendance at the incident on either of the first two attending appliances? How well experienced was the Senior Firefighter, and were they qualified at the time to act up in this position?
7. Was there a Senior Station Officer (SSO) responded who attended this incident?
8. Why was an executive officer not notified sooner given the escalating incident, risk factor and the lack of officers on scene?
9. Did the Communications Centre have access to the JTOC camera footage mentioned and were they able to watch it in real time? Is the Shift Manager able to make operational decisions based on what is shared or visible to them?

There was a significant delay in the response of OTAH3112. It took over 11 minutes to respond. It appears OTAH311 were responded to pick it up from Otahuhu Station, but they were possibly enroute to Manurewa Station on cover.
1. What caused the delayed response of OTAH3112?
2. Did Otahuhu respond from Manurewa back to Otahuhu, and then to the incident?
3. What is the minimum time for an appliance to respond (go K1)?
4. Would it have been better suited for a closer appliance than Otahuhu to respond and uplift the hose layer?

OIA16830 Grayson Reply
Referring to Fire and Emergency's reply to point 7 regarding standard operational coverage:

1. The Avondale appliance was moved to Manurewa station after three other "cover moves" were conducted. Is there a reason that an appliance, especially a Pump Rescue Tender was moved from further afield rather than a closer appliance such the Mangere, Otara, Onehunga or Mount Roskill pumps?
2. Did this leave the Avondale area without firefighting or rescue tender coverage for the period of time it was moved? How long was this for? Did this leave the 'ghost-manned' truck AVON6015 also without a crew to respond and operate it?
3. On other incidents involving the same 'watch' it appears Avondale is constantly moved for maintaining operational coverage. Is there a reason this appliance is always moved to other stations instead of closer resources? Does this constantly leave the Avondale area without any coverage?
4. Is there a guideline or process on maintaining coverage across the Auckland area?

Yours sincerely,

Mark Grayson