Since the last newsletter we have had five callouts. The first one on the 29th of August at 08.10hrs was to a MVA (motor vehicle accident) on the corner of Division Street and Arawa Street. A car pulling out of Division street didn’t notice a Fulton and Hogan truck and struck it side on, bursting the diesel fuel tank. Thankfully no one was hurt and the Fulton and Hogan crew did a great job cleaning up the diesel spill.
The next callout on the 30th of August at 13.40hrs was to a vegetation fire at Norfolk Lane this side of the Thornton Bridge. It turned out to be a false alarm –good intent as there was a permit issued for a controlled burn off.
On the 10th of September at 1805hrs the siren went off for another MVA this time to Pikowai Road. On the way we question whether it was to Pikowai Road or to the Pikowai Straights but were told it was to Pikowai Road. After about half an hour of two fire appliances, our medical van, a police car and one ambulance searching this road and side roads, it was established that the incident was indeed on the Pikowai Straights.
The accident scene was finally found and after negotiating a long farm track and fire and ambulance transferring into four wheel drive vehicles, the patient was carried up a steep hill in a scoop stretcher and transferred to the ambulance. The rescue helicopter had found a landing spot at Pikowai motor camp and we assisted in transferring the patient from the ambulance to the helicopter.
Our next callout was a medical on the 11th of Sept. at 18.05hrs to a female with stomach pains and our last callout on the 15th of Sept at 23.33hrs was another medical to an elderly male suffering from nausea and unable to keep food down. Once again we assisted ambulance to get patient into the ambulance and one of our crew went the ambulance to assist on the trip to hospital.
As noted above it is really important to give clear directions to ambulance and Fire control rooms as to the location of your incident. These control rooms are in Auckland, so we need to differentiate between Pikowai road and Pikowai Straights. We can also call this stretch of road the Matata Straights, both these versions are logged into the mapping system on their computers.
Chief Fire Officer Brian Dobson Deputy Chief Gavin Dennis 3222 118 322 2253