Port Hills Fire Response Costs - NZ Fire Service
Alan Thompson made this Official Information request to Fire and Emergency New Zealand
The request was refused by Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
From: Alan Thompson
Dear New Zealand Fire Service Commission,
In a recent OIA application the details of NZ Fire Services costs in fighting the Port Hills Fires (Feb 2017) were requested. You declined this request on the basis that this information was to be included in the “soon to be released” review report of the Port Hills Fire and that this document would be publically available.
The Port Hills review has now been released and the report included a half page statement of “Port Hills Costs”. On examination, this half page is very incomplete and does not come close to reasonably representing the costs of this fire:
1. The only costs listed are with respect to the Rural Fire Authority (Selwyn District Council) and “Contractors” totalling $6.9 Million.
2. The cost incurred by the Department of Conservation with respect to their fire (the Marley Hill Fire) and for any contribution to their overall fire fight costs are not stated or indeed, even referred to. DOC have publically stated that their costs were $4.5 Million. It is very unclear from the review report why the DOC costs were ignored and/or why a statement of DOC’s significant costs were not considered by the review team to be significant when setting out a statement claiming to be “Port Hills Costs”.
3. No costs as incurred by the NZ Fire Service were reported with only a reference to “costs do not include Fire and Emergency NZ/NZ Fire Service staff time”. There is no reference to the many other costs that NZ Fire Service would have incurred other than “staff time”.
It is very clear then that the costs of the Port Hills Fires were grossly under reported by the review team and that significant components from DOC and NZ Fire are missing.
The NZ Fire Service has in the past calculated the costs of rural fire responses and billed RFAs for its costs after the “First Hour”. The assignment of trucks, tankers, pumps and other fire fighting equipment and supplies to an incident is known and is reported in ICAD, SMS and the incident report to FIRS. This information (along with the NRFA schedule of Costs) have been used to cost out a fire response and bill RFAs. I suggest then that it is quite reasonable to expect that a costing of the NZ Fire Service costs in responding to the Port Hills Fires would be relatively easy to produce. For the review to claim that it is “difficult to calculate the total cost of a fire” is not acceptable for a publically funded organisation such as NZ Fire Service given that this was “business as usual” process prior to FENZ.
As stated in the review, the Port Hills Fire was “one of the biggest and most severe in terms of the number of houses burned and people evacuated in recent NZ history”. I suggest that we are entitled to know what the total cost was with some degree of accuracy. Most certainly, the release of the very incomplete “Port Hills Costs” document that was the basis of refusing my previous request is quite unacceptable and lacks credibility.
Under the provisions of the Official Information Act I request for a second time the costs incurred by the NZ Fire Service that are directly attributable to the Port Hills Fires response.
Alan Thompson
Lower Hutt
From: Web Communications
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Thank you for your email.
This is to confirm that your request has been received and has been passed
on to the relevant team.
They will respond to you in the next two business working days.
Kind regards,
New Zealand Fire Service.
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From: Web Communications
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Hi
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If you have a fire emergency, please call 111 immediately.
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Fire and Emergency New Zealand
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From: Robinson, Louise
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Dear Alan
Please find attached a letter acknowledging receipt of your official
information request.
Kind regards
Louise
Louise Robinson
Ministerial Services Coordinator, Executive & Ministerial Services
Office of the Chief Executive
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P: 04 496 3694
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From: Robinson, Louise
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Dear Alan
Please find attached a response from Leigh Deuchars, Director, Office of
the Chief Executive, to your official information request.
Kind regards
Louise
Louise Robinson
Ministerial Services Coordinator, Executive & Ministerial Services
Office of the Chief Executive
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M: 021 833 640
P: 04 496 3694
[2][email address]
[3]www.fireandemergency.nz
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