Brighton fire calls 'not for amateurs’

Press, 21 February 1978, Page 6

Brighton fire calls 'not for amateurs’

New Brighton's volunteer fire service is inadequate for the big area it has to protect, and should be replaced by professional fire-fighters.

This is the proposition that'i will soon be put strongly by; i the New Zealand Fire'i Brigades' Union to the Fire.l A growing city area such I; as New Brighton should beable to expect more thanh “part-time amateurs” to deal! with its emergencies, accord-! 1 ing to Senior Fireman P. A.' i The New Zealand Firej weight behind a report by ( Mr Stanley contending that!; New Brighton and other fire; ( stations of similar size should be manned by permanent j sian. i

Mr Stanley's recommendation was passed at the union's national conference in Wellington, and will now go before the Fire Service

He said in the report that the New Brighton Volunteer Fire Brigade’s turn-out area included between 40.000 and 42.000 people and a heavy concentration of industry.

On present growth figures. 60.000 people would be living in the area by 1987. Nowhere else in New Zealand did volunteer firemen have such a big responsibility, said Mr Stanley. “ft is clear from the increasing size and growing population of the turn-out area that New Brighton should have had a permanently manned fire station some years ago.” he said.

"A modem, growing city area must expect more than part-time amateurs to deal with its emergencies.” In 1976, Mr Stanley said, the New Brighton volunteers had been called out 254 times — 172 calls to actual fires, and 22 to incidents such as motor accidents. Calls for firemen to attend

motor accidents and perform; other special services had: more than doubled in the last' two years. “I think we may fairly expect that the number of calls: will have increased by 50 per! cent Dy me New Brighton is already getting more than many permanently manned stations,” said Mr Stanley. He said the days were gone when any layman couid double as a fire officer at a, fire in a city such as Christ-j church. . The modem permanent; fireman was a highly trained: professional, whereas volun-i teers, although to be commended for their work, under-j went little or no official scrutiny before joining the service and got only the most basic of training afterwards.

“Volunteer officers are not required to pass any examinations or long scrutiny about their suitability, but rather are elected on their popularity within the brigade.

"This system does not lead to the best man getting the job, and does not mean that he is capable of handling the varied incidents with which a modern fire-fighting officer is expected to deal,” said Mr Stanley.

"There is an enormous life risk in the New Brighton area, and the Fire Service must ask itself whether the time lost in response because of volunteer manning and travel is acceptable,” he said.

Mr Stanley’s approved recommendation will be presented to the Fire Service Commission by the national secretary of the Fire Brigades’ Union (Mr G. G.f Walker).

The head of the New ; Brighton Volunteer Fire Bri■gade (Mr D. J. Pitcaithly) said last evening that he had (read Mr Stanley’s report, but I was not prepared to com:ment on it.