Members will be aware of District Manager Mackereth's instruction to all staff to restrict Parnell’s aerial appliance to respond to confirmed fires only, copied below:

Restricted Movements – Type 5

Effective Immediately:
Parnell 255 is to respond only to confirmed fires until further notice.

Background:
Auckland City 205 remains unavailable due to ongoing investigations following the 5th Alarm incident at Hillside Road. It is expected to be out of service for at least three weeks.

Rationale:
We must ensure the operational readiness of the only available heavy aerial appliance serving Tāmaki Makaurau.

To preserve its availability, restrictions will apply to Parnell 255, including limitations on routine activities and training. This does not restrict Refuelling, Appliance and Aerial checks. 

Next Steps:
This restriction will remain in place until Auckland City 205 is back in service. At that time, this notice will be rescinded.

Ngā mihi | Kind Regards

Vaughan Mackereth (he/him/tāne)
District Manager | Kaiwhakahaere Takiwā 
GIFireE, PG Dip Emergency Mgmt
Auckland City District (District 15), 40 Pitt Street, Newton
PO Box 68646, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142
Mobile:  027 886 3520
Email:   vaughan.mackereth@fireandemergency.nz

This instruction was issued without genuine consultation with the Auckland Local and highlights the disarray and crisis that Fire and Emergencies fleet is in. Despite the organisation saying that their fleet is well maintained and regularly serviced, once again reality proves the complete opposite,  with this decision impacting the safety and well-being of firefighters and the public.

It is a decision that seriously impacts the safety and well-being of firefighters and the public, as getting aerial appliances to incidents quickly and early ensures that their capabilities are able to be effectively used. Late arrival of these crucial fire fighting appliances is likely to result in properties being lost to fire and lives being unnecessarily placed at risk. The notice details that the Aerial will only be responded to confirmed fires. It is unclear whether it can be used for other incident types, such as rescues, medicals, assist police and special service requests for other agencies.

This decision has been made with no thought to firefighter safety by temporarily increasing initial resourcing to incidents to take into account the serious delay of the aerial. This will force officers to change their strategy and tactics, and for firefighters to undertake interior firefighting that may not have been necessary had the aerial responded quickly.

The Local has been very vocal in the past that decisions such as this are directly contrary to sound command and control decision making, impacting incident commanders ability to plan backwards for incidents.

Officers should continue to make operational decisions based on their training and experience and call for the heavy aerial when they deem it prudent to do so, regardless of confirmed fire.

NZPFU members are reminded that they can take all reasonable steps for the health and safety of crews and the public on the incident ground.   

FENZs own command and control manual reinforces officers to plan for the potential for escalation, such as:

• “Whenever possible, the OIC should aim to move from being reactive (responding to the incident as it develops) to being proactive (predicting how the incident will develop and bringing in sufficient resources to deal with that potential).”
  
  
• “What additional resources would I need to deal with the full potential of the incident?”
  
  
• “There is also a natural tendency to resist calling for more resources just in case it turns out that they are not needed. Nevertheless, turning resources around is always preferable to watching property burn down unnecessarily.
  
  
•  “What if any, special appliances do I need?’

This instruction is a direct contradiction to FENZs own officer training and it impacts the safety health and wellbeing of all firefighters and the public. 

It is a poorly formed knee-jerk reaction from an organisation that has a dysfunctional fleet strategy that is in crisis.

Officers should continue to make operational decisions based on their training and experience and call for the heavy aerial when they deem it prudent to do so.