The Wellington region has been left with no coverage by large firetrucks this week after the latest breakdown.
Fire fighters respond to a call-out. File photo Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Fire and Emergency says there is no risk to public safety, but firefighters say it's another example of how rundown the fleet has become.
One truck with a 32m-long hydraulic platform seized up at a major house fire last month and is still being fixed.
A second had to be towed from Thorndon fire station on Monday after returning from a callout with busted power steering.
Fire and Emergency has had to take parts from the first truck to fix the second.
"You could say it's bad luck," said Professional Firefighters' Union Wellington secretary Alan Collett.
"But with what else is going on around the country with other aerials [large firetrucks], this has got to be just systemic failure and ... the fact these trucks are becoming so old."
FENZ said its people were trained to adjust their tactics at an emergency if required.
"There are no concerns for public safety," said FENZ Te Upoko region manager Bruce Stubbs.
"It is rare for an aerial to aid the escape of people from a burning building."
The Type 5 aerial truck known as Thorndon 235, is towed from the station on Monday after breaking down. Photo: Supplied
The Thorndon truck might be back on duty today, he said, adding they had a contingency plan to use the nearest other available truck.
However, all the back-up Type 4 trucks in Wellington have much shorter ladders, only up to 17m long.
The largest Type 5 and 6 trucks are used mostly to hose down fires from a height, as an observation platform, or to prevent fire spreading to neighbouring buildings, Stubbs said.
FENZ was asked by RNZ how its limited ability to perform these functions without any large truck on hand was not a safety issue.
"It is implausible to suggest that we will always have exactly the ideal set of capabilities at every fire in New Zealand on every occasion," Stubbs replied in a statement.
"We have a range of tools at our disposal and always endeavour to use them in the most effective manner depending on the situation we are dealing with."
During the past week, one of the two 17m-ladder trucks also broke down for a few hours. This left the region extending up to Ōtaki with just one 17m-ladder truck, and no 32m ones.
"If maintenance is expected to take a long duration, a relief appliance will be provided," Stubbs said.
However, Wellington's relief truck is a Type 5 from Christchurch that has been blacklisted for months by Christchurch firefighters who say it is unfit for use there, so Wellington cannot use it either.
FENZ believes this is a mistaken view based on the two cities' topography, Stubbs said.
However, Collett said in 16 years on the job he had "never seen our fleet in such a bad state".
"There are spares around the country, but they're currently being employed in other locations where other aerials have either mechanically failed or now off the run," Collett said.
The union had blacklisted the Newtown station Type 5 truck that broke down last month at the Kilbirnie house fire, over its very patchy record.
Just days before that fire, records show four firefighters were in its hydraulic platform when "all boom movements froze".
Three weeks prior to that, its flashing lights weren't working, and this kept recurring.
A subframe crack was found the month before.
Last April its airbag inflation was all over the place, records show.
If the truck returns to service, firefighters say they won't take it out.
FENZ told the union the blacklisting was not necessary since the truck was being fixed. It has spent almost half a million dollars refurbishing and fixing it over five years.
But Collett responded: "The 'cease to work' notice is very necessary in these circumstances given FENZ's history of returning this appliance to operational duties when it is not satisfactorily repaired."
The union is also attempting to issue safety notices over the truck, but FENZ has resisted, and Worksafe did not accept its first attempt.
"We do not consider there is a basis" for a provisional improvement notice (PIN) "to purport that the aerial appliance [from Newtown] is unfit for its operational purpose," Deputy chief executive organisational strategy & capability development Russell Wood told the union.
Fire crews in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin have also reported ongoing problems with lack of or faulty aerials.
A senior station officer at Dunedin's City Station and the union's southern branch secretary Mark Leonard said they rely for back-up on a very old aerial in Christchurch.
"If ours goes off the run tomorrow... it means we're at least a day without a ladder, even if it does get here," Leonard said.
FENZ has four new aerials on order but they won't be here for a year at least.
It has been working on a national strategy for years, to replace its outdated one.