Takanini fire: Urgent investigation after ageing Auckland fire truck blows lights, sirens

Thursday, 5 December 2019

The 23-year-old Spartan turntable ladder appliance in action after it eventually arrived at the United Movers fire in Takanini on Wednesday afternoon.

Fire and Emergency NZ has launched an urgent investigation after an ageing fire truck blew its lights and sirens en route to a raging inferno on Wednesday night.

Stuff on Thursday revealed an electrical malfunction happened when the truck was passing Parnell and it had to be escorted by another fire engine along the motorway.

Aerial appliances dampen down the charred remains of the premises in South Auckland.

The malfunction delayed its arrival at the scene of the huge blaze at United Movers in Takanini.

Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) region manager Ron Devlin said the organisation was investigating.

Thick smoke billows from the fire at United Movers in Takanini on Wednesday afternoon.

The rental truck serving as a temporary salvage tender at Grey Lynn station in Auckland.

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'We expect all primary response vehicles to be able to use their lights and sirens to get to an incident. We are urgently investigating how this happened.

'The aerial truck is currently at the workshop for repair and to determine what caused this.'

The 23-year-old turntable ladder engine, from the Auckland City station, was relieving for a newer aerial truck out of action since February with a cracked chassis sub-frame.

A well-placed source said the ladder unit had been specifically called for by crews to battle the challenging blaze.

Its late arrival, just over one hour after the first 111 call, did not affect the firefighting response, thanks only to the tireless work of south Auckland fire crews in cutting the fire off from spreading to other businesses, he said.

But he was blunt in his appraisal of the ageing Spartan truck.

'The truck's shot, it's well past its best-before,' he said.

'It's a good truck but it's just too old.'

The incident was the latest malfunction to befall the ageing engine, which had recently been worked on by an electrician for 30 hours, he said.

FENZ has been approached for comment.

NZ Professional Firefighters Union Auckland local secretary Martin Campbell, also a station officer at Grey Lynn, said the incident was symptomatic of underfunding of the urban fleet by FENZ.

'It's no surprise these faults are coming up, and they are coming up more regularly now.'

Campbell's own station had been forced to hire a rental truck to cover for a salvage tender vehicle with a blown engine.

Union president Ian Wright earlier said the situation with the hire truck was 'not ideal'.

Concerns about the state of the firefighting fleet have come to the fore in the wake of the SkyCity Convention Centre fire in October.

A source told Stuff the city's aerial fleet was 'in tatters' and more of the tall trucks could have helped bring the fire under control sooner.

That claim was strongly rejected by FENZ regional manager Ron Devlin, who said more aerial units would not have changed the outcome of the fire.