Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The ongoing threat of landslides in Auckland sparked a plea from emergency officials for a rapid rescue team to be on call 24/7.
The request was made to Fire and Emergency (FENZ) shortly after the Anniversary Day floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.
FENZ has a fire truck in Papatoetoe that, over the floods-cyclone period, it kept fully crewed with Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) specialists.
The truck was de-crewed on 24 February while Auckland was under a yellow level heavy rain and thunderstorm alert, according to a union email.
Not being crewed 24/7 by USAR could cause "a significant delay" getting the truck out the door, the union said.
The council-based Auckland Emergency Management played down the request, and FENZ Auckland region manager Ron Devlin declined an interview.
In a statement late on Tuesday he said if there was a requirement to have USAR personnel attend a significant incident, such as a landslides and major rescues, there "is a process in place to mobilise USAR personnel".
The request on 23 February came in a letter from Auckland Emergency Management general manager Paul Amaral.
"Our teams have identified a number of active landslides that are posing a significant risk to some of our most vulnerable communities and even with moderate rainfall over the next 12 months at least, these landslides could be reactivated, or even previously unknown areas triggered," Amaral said in the letter.
"We understand that the FENZ USAR heavy rescue team does not have a permanent dedicated staff resource and, for the reasons stated above, request that this be provided 24/7 should further issues with landslide impacted buildings occur over this time period.
"I would like to request this support from FENZ/IUSAR."
RNZ does not have a record of FENZ responding to Amaral.
The next day, 24 February, the professional firefighters' union emailed FENZ offering to work with it to implement the request:
"The NZPFU is aware of the recent request ... [to] provide permanent dedicated staffing of the Papatoetoe Heavy Rescue Tender 24/7 due to the number of identified landslides...
"Whilst the Heavy Rescue Tender has been temporarily staffed 24/7 since the severe floods of late January, and the cyclone shortly after, we are aware that it will be de-staffed from 1800 hours tonight (Friday 24th Feb) as we are entering yet another heavy rain warning."
This comes at the same time as a union survey found Auckland firefighters struggled with senior leadership, inadequate gear and vehicles during the floods.
When asked, Auckland Emergency Management on Monday denied it asked for 24/7 USAR crewing.
"Our request for USAR resources was a procedural request, acknowledging the potential need for ongoing USAR support.
"It was not a request for a USAR team to be stood up 24/7 in Auckland for 12 months," Amaral said in a statement to RNZ.
The intention was to signal to FENZ there could be ongoing land instability issues and allow it to plan accordingly, he said.
"Specialist emergency response services are characterised by their ability to mobilise quickly and deploy to wherever they are needed.
"Signalling that there may also be a 24/7 requirement also helps with resource planning."
Amaral said he followed up the letter with talks with FENZ, and was keeping it updated about geotechnical work going on at hotspots.
But the union's Northern and Auckland local secretary Martin Campbell said the February request from Amaral appeared "urgent".
"It seems like an urgent request from the council, reading the letter," he said.
"It's curious to know why FENZ seem to be sitting on their hands. If the experts are asking for help, we would be silly to ignore the experts."
Without 24/7 crewing, it could take an hour or more for USAR specialists to get from home to the station, then they also had to pick up gear from Auckland central station, Campbell said.
"On the night of the flooding, I know a lot of the USAR teams did actually struggle to even get to the fire station."
The union 100 percent supported the aim of the letter, "of having more firefighters and USAR teams immediately able to respond straightaway instead of the current process we've got where it can be a significant delay".
He added he hoped the request had gone up even as high as FENZ's chief executive.
Operational review
Devlin said the February letter was to outline "the potential ongoing need" for the USAR capability.
FENZ was considering the request in the context of the floods and landslide risk.
The Auckland technical rescue was not usually crewed by USAR, but was during the floods for two weeks "to give additional support to the response", Devlin said.
There were four USAR crew were permanently on shift, working on a rostered system. Usually, firefighters crewed the truck.
"It is incorrect to say it is 'de-crewed' ... during business as usual, it is a truck that carries specialist equipment cross-crewed by permanent rescue-trained firefighters."
It continued to be operationally available.
FENZ would be doing an operational review into its response to Cyclone Gabrielle, he added.
'Could have been better articulated'
Amaral put out an additional statement to RNZ at noon today about the February request to FENZ: "The intention of this correspondence was to highlight a potential ongoing need for a search and rescue function should ongoing land stability arise. Signalling this would allow Fire and Emergency NZ to factor that into its resource allocation and planning for the coming months, or up to a year.
"This will remain an active discussion with FENZ leadership, as is appropriate, and as ongoing geotechnical work is carried out on slips across the region.
"On reflection, the points made in our letter could have been better articulated but we are comfortable that its intention has been made clear with the intended recipients of the letter."