Fire and Emergency considers how to cover for striking fire crews

Fire and Emergency is looking at how the Defence Force could help but has made no formal request two weeks' out from an unprecedented 10-hour Friday afternoon strike by most paid firefighters.FENZ is instead relying primarily on volunteer firefighters if the first strike goes ahead on 27 November, national commander Megan Stiffler told Morning Report on Friday.The other main response would be putting out safety messages to the community, she said.FENZ has settled on this approach following a month of talks "across government" on how to keep the public as safe as possible.An early options plan to put Defence Force firefighters on FENZ trucks at up to 20 key fire stations had been dropped."We would never put another workforce in our fire stations," Stiffler said."The Defence Force has very limited capability to assist us. We are talking to them about what they could do with regards to engineering if we have a building collapse of some sort."They can assist us if we have a capability of an issue that our volunteers cannot deliver."A contingency plan received by the volunteer firefighters' United Fire Brigades Association from FENZ on Wednesday does not mention Defence, only "partner agency support".The association and FENZ both said volunteers might be called in to fight fires in areas paid crews would normally cover, but would not be asked to do anything other than what they currently do.That means during a 10-hour strike there would be no use of the larger ladder-trucks (often used on high-rises or at industrial fires), or chemical spill cleanup and no complex extrication of people from road crashes ('jaws of life'), said statements."There are significant gaps in the emergency response ... that simply cannot be filled," FENZ told RNZ.It was "exploring all potential options" and working with NZDF, police, ambulance and the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA on that.The NZDF said there had been no agreements or formal requests for support made yet, "however the NZDF is conducting contingency planning" with FENZ.The Defence Minister had received no request from FENZ for help, said the minister's office.Both FENZ and the Professional Firefighters' Union blame each other for the impacts, with the former saying the strikes could have fatal consequences.David Phillips, a senior firefighter in central Auckland and union member told Morning Report on Friday it would not be safe for Defence firefighters to be used in places or operations they were not trained for.Stiffler agreed saying "This is a big gap in our capability and you can't replicate that quickly".While NZDF told RNZ, "NZDF personnel would have to conduct a period of familiarisation training if they were to provide support in an unfamiliar area or use unfamiliar equipment."It would support FENZ in a way that lets it maintain fire cover at its own camps and bases, it said.But Phillips also said volunteer crews lacked specialist fire trucks and sometimes specialist training. "One of the core tenants of being a career firefighter and a volunteer firefighter is that we do the work that we're trained to do."And they're not in the locations where the most calls happen - those 20 percent of the firefighters who are paid respond to 80 percent of the calls."FENZ said no crew would attend an incident without a senior officer in support."We have written to employers indicating a possible increased activity for our volunteers/their employees," it said.Phillips said FENZ should be focused on putting a fair offer on the table to stop the strike.Stiffler said other leaders were working on that."Head of people and our CE and the board chair is focusing on a resolution to settling this agreement."There's no guarantee we can get settlement by the 27th, so as the lead of operations for New Zealand my focus is on contingency planning."Minister Nicole McKee who holds the internal affairs warrant called proceeding with a strike "reckless" and said there was a reasonable offer on the table.