Rural community concern about emergency services

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 13, 28 August 1984, Page 18

Rural community concern about emergency services

A car-shed fire in the Pukekaha Valley 22 kms north of Raetihi earlier this month is causing the rural community in the Waimarino some concern. The concern is with the new emergency diialling system which means that, since the Ohakune telephone exchange went automatic in April of this year, all emergency calls have had to be channelled through the Wanganui exchange. In this Pukekaha Road incident on Saturday morning 4 August the owners of the property concerned dialled 1 1 1 to report the fire which had broken out in their car shed at 8.00am. The owner gave her name and the name of the road but, being a rural property, couldn't be more precise so was asked by the Wanganui operator to describe the nearest landmark. The Wanganui operator had by then activated the Raetihi fire siren and the brigade were soon on their way to Orautoha and the Pukekaha Road ... but they hadn't been given the name of the property owner so didn't not know precisely where they were heading. It takes about 30 minutes for a fire appliance to travel from Raetihi to the Pukekaha Road — the first 10 miles is on tarseal, the last 3!4 miles to the property on metal — and since the appliance was now in radio contact with the Raetihi Fire Station they asked for a more precise location as they travelled towards Orautoha.

But the local fire station couldn't help until a request was made to Wanganui for the tapes of the original emergency call ' and conversation (recorded automatically when a 1 1 1 call is made) to be played back. It was only then, when local brigade members heard the name of the property owner, that they knew where they were heading. The fire was extinguished but not before $38,000 worth of damage to vehicles, freezers and workshop had been done. The house, which stands only 12 feet from the gutted car-shed, was saved but it could have been a different

story had the wind been blowing from the opposite direction. Any delay in the arrival of the appliances due to insufficient or incorrect instructions could have disastrous consequences in any future fire and it is this aspect that is worrying for both the rural community and the local fire brigades. -In this instance had the brigade been given the name of the property owner local knowledge would have enabled the appliance to set off knowing exactly where it was heading. As it was, in this fire on 4 August, no significant delay was experienced.