SkyCity Auckland fire: Fire crews 'feeling like we hadn't done enough' to save convention centre
Saturday, 26 October 2019
Morale was low in the ranks as fire crews battling the huge SkyCity Convention Centre blaze felt they should have been able to extinguish it sooner, a senior Auckland firefighter says.
Takapuna senior station officer Katie Smart was one of about 140 firefighters called in to respond to the burning building in Auckland's CBD on Tuesday, supporting the safety officer.
Smart said a feeling of frustration prevailed in the early stages of the blaze because crews were making limited progress against the relentless roof fire.
'People were pretty demoralised early on. Morale was low,' she said.
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'We were all feeling like we had not done enough, that we should have been able to save more of this building, we should have been able to put this fire out.'
In her view, it would take some time for the weary firefighters to overcome those feelings.
She was effusive in her support for the work of fellow firefighters on the blaze, saying everyone gave it their all and she saw no-one shirking their duties.
Smart also praised assistant commander Dave Woon, who changed tactics on the first day, pulling crews away from the roof, instead battling the blaze from the fifth floor and aerial appliances.
'He did a really amazing job of saying 'you guys are doing great work I'm so impressed with how committed you are'.'
'We wanted to get stuck in'
Smart and her colleagues were preparing for a combined training exercise at Devonport's Navy base when the fire erupted.
People started sending them pictures of the smoke and they heard radio chatter escalating, as the fire was raised to a third alarm.
'We often transmit those quite early to get resources on the road … it might turn out, 'oh actually we can contain this'.'
'When the fourth alarm went in I thought, 'oh that's not good'.'
They went into Auckland to cover other incidents, including a private fire alarm activation, before the SkyCity fire was raised to the fifth alarm and she began asking the communications centre to be assigned to the fire.
'We wanted to get stuck in,' she said.
'Then we heard the sixth alarm we were like 's***, this must be pretty chaotic.'
The crew responded to the fire from Grey Lynn.
On arrival, her firefighters were thrown into a pool with other crew, and Smart was assigned to assist the safety officer.
She made her way up to the forward control point then onto the roof.
Hoses were everywhere and the radio chatter was hectic, amid concerns for the integrity of the roof as the water was piled on.
Thoughts of its collapse crossed her mind.
'I was constantly thinking I need to make sure one of these batteries is charged on my radio in case I'm in a sticky situation.
'I was constantly thinking about ways out.'
Once up there she realised the enormity of the challenge of extinguishing the blaze, in the face of strong wind gusts.
'I was thinking … we need to get on top of this quite quickly.'
In those frantic hours she worked to spot significant hazards and make sure people were not standing in large groups on the roof, as they could fall through.
Then she received word from the commanders that tactics had changed to be more defensive, to 'just protect what we could'.
'Surrounding and drowning [the fire].'
She was re-deployed to Sector 1 at the front of the building.
That Tuesday would turn out to be a 15-hour day for Smart, much of it wearing heavy breathing apparatus and lugging hoses.
The following night she returned, helping with efforts to dampen down hot spots.
Smart is a firefighting veteran, who joined the fire service 18 years ago when fewer than one per cent of crew were women.
She said she wanted to encourage more women to enter Fire and Emergency, and was quick to thank the public for their support, who provided snacks and coffees to emergency services.
'What has been amazing is the gratitude and support from the public which has been just overwhelming.'