Members will be aware of the latest failure in Fire & Emergency fleet at a house fire in Grey Lynn. 

This relief appliance has been operating out of Grey Lynn for several months and has suffered multiple breakdowns during this time, requiring repairs.

Near misses had also been reported via Safe@Work.

Some of these defects consist of:

• Coolant leaks
• Air leaks
• Doors not shutting
• Oil Leaks
• Diesel leaks
• Vinyl flooring lifting
• Siren malfunction

The Local believes all these defects, as well as this latest pump fault, are compounded by the age of the truck at over 27 years old.

The Local has written to the Te Hiku Fleet Co-Ordinator asking for a full Level 2 Accident Investigation to be carried out. 

We believe this latest operational failure requires a full Level 2 Investigation to attempt to find the direct cause, as well as looking at what other influences (internal or external) that may have compounded the situation, or if any changes to policies and/or procedures are required to stop a similar accident from occurring in the future.

The Local believes that part of the investigation should be for Fire & Emergency to immediately review relief appliance allocation procedures to ensure that appropriate fire appliances are stationed at high workload stations.

Until such time as a full and thorough investigation can be conducted and any corrective actions implemented, the Local is recommending to members that the appliance, Relief 404 (Registration TH8385), is not used under any circumstances for emergency response duties.

If members have any questions, please contact one of the Local Executives or Terry Bird.