The Northern Branch would like to recognise the huge amount of work done by the Comm Centres, especially Northern Comms, during the recent weather events in the Region (see the figures).

Also, all the firefighters who answered the calls and operated in the finest traditions of the New Zealand Fire Service.

Over the last week, Communicators handled 5,096 phone calls and dispatched appliances to 1,480 incidents.

Numbers of NAT events dispatched across the Northern Region:

Northland: 45
Auckland: 613
Waikato: 146
Bay of Plenty: 24

On Sunday alone, the day shift handled 582 emergency 111 calls.

At the busiest time, between 12 noon and 1 pm, Communicators answered 274 emergency calls in a single hour - averaging 5 calls a minute.