Matata Fire Brigade news September 09
A very busy month with 12 callouts, nine medicals one flooding, one vegetation fire which turned out to be a false alarm and the Tsunami alert.
Our medical callouts varied from people with breathing difficulties from a variety of causes, to a couple of calls to people suffering complications from other conditions.
Two medicals resulted from accidents with one person falling off the back of a moving small truck. with a cut to the head and bad concussion. The other accident was at a local motor-cross event with a competitor coming off, falling down a bank and suffering a possible broken back.
On The 24th of September we were called out in the evening to the flooding culvert just on the road to Edgecumbe. Not much we could do except fold down the warning signs and assist in putting out cones. While there, we were told by a truck driver of flooding up the Pikowai Straights. The crew on the fire appliance located the spot and were able to remove he obstruction from a culvert which fixed the problem. Both crews on the appliance and van checked all the creeks in the village before returning to the station.
The unusual callout of the month was the Tsunami alert on the 30th of September. Both the Chief and the Deputy received an amber alert of the tsunami at 7.54am through our fire service pagers. This was to let us know of a possible threat. On receiving this They both meet to review plans of action.
At 9.09am They both received a red alert and immediately went to the Fire Station to monitor the Fire Service communications and established radio contact with The Whakatane Council Emergency Operations Centre.
At 9.37am, They received the order from the Fire Service to move the Appliance and 1st Response Van to higher ground, as did every other coastal Fire Brigade. We moved the vehicles to the corner of Pakeha and Pollen. At this time contact was made with Whakatane EOC and it was agreed that our siren needed to be sounded
We flicked a switch to change the tone of our Siren to a constant tone - the Civil Defence warning
This is not to tell people to evacuate but to tell people to listen to the local radio station for further warnings and instruction from Whakatane Council EOC.
IF there was a need to evacuate the village, the Matata Fire Brigade (if there was time) would have driven around the town in the First Response Van and the Appliance and announced over the public address system to evacuate to the Manawahe hills.
Once we heard that the alert was downgraded we turned the siren off, returned the vehicles to the station but the station was still manned until about 4 o’clock that afternoon maintaining a communication watch with the fire Service and Whakatane EOC.
If there was a need to evacuate but no time to drive around town in our vehicles announcing instructions, our appliance and Van would immediately head up Manawahe Hill. So it is important that Everyone acts to protect themselves. Some people evacuated on hearing the Siren and that was good as they allowed themselves time and peace of mind by acting sooner rather than later.
Chief Fire Officer Brian Dobson Deputy Chief Gavin Dennis 3222 118 322 2253