News Story
Our Brigade responded to 688 incidents during 2017, and while this number is down on recent years, there was a flourish and variety of calls to end December during what's regarded as the holiday season. Since Christmas Eve there've been 16 calls, including escalating, or major events. There were two 3rd Alarms at the same time on 28th December... bush fire in Papatoetoe concurrent with a fire in the upper floor of a high-rise hotel in downtown Auckland. Other calls were to flames sweeping through a pallet factory at Wiri, to a fire in an office block in Manukau City and to a garage well-alight in Papatoetoe. As well as the serious Papatoetoe vegetation fire there was a major blaze in grass and bush in Waikumete Cemetery (results of suspected arson) and serious fires in two Mangere reserves, the latter a long-duration job in Ambury Regional Park. Members have assisted at 3 motor vehicle accidents... one in the southern-most reaches of our operating area on the Tuakau/Port Waikato Road, and others in Epsom and Karaka. We also attended a chemical spillage in a Mt Wellington factory. The flurry of calls which ended 2017 concluded with a late-night K99 garage fire in Mangere on New Year's Eve, with members still in attendance into 2018.
