Review into Port Hills fires released
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Fire and Emergency New Zealand has released the independent review into how the fire-fighting agencies responded to the Port Hills fires.
The review was conducted by Alan Goodwin of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authority Council (AFAC). Mr Goodwin has more than 25 years experience in wildfires and has led several large operational reviews in Australia.
The Port Hills fires in February covered an area of more than 1660 hectares.
The Port Hills fires started on 13 February and took 66 days to fully extinguish. They resulted in local State of Emergencies being declared in both Christchurch City and the Selwyn District and covered an area of 1661 hectares. Nine homes were loss as a result of the fires and five suffered damage.
During the massive firefighting effort, helicopter pilot and decorated soldier Steve Askin, who was helping to fight the fire by air, was tragically killed when his helicopter crashed.
After the fires, the then New Zealand Fire Service and National Rural Fire Authority commissioned AFAC to conduct an independent operational review of the event to learn from the response. The focus of the review was to make recommendations on how the newly unified Fire and Emergency New Zealand will carry out its duties in the future.
“The Port Hills fires were one of the biggest and most complex in New Zealand’s history,” said Fire and Emergency Chief Executive Rhys Jones.
“The review found that while firefighters from across the agencies did a lot of things well, there are areas we need to improve,” said Mr Jones.
“We accept the review’s findings and have developed an Action Plan to set out how we will respond to meeting each of the recommendations.
“The Action Plan focuses on three main areas - improving how our firefighters and incident management team operate and work together; the safety of our firefighters; and keeping the community at the heart of our work before, during and after an incident.
“The main difference is, next time, the response will be under one organisation. Fire and Emergency New Zealand has brought together urban and rural firefighters from 38 different fire agencies into one organisation, under one piece of legislation.
“The lessons from these fires and this review will be help us build our new organisation into one that serves our communities best,” Mr Jones said.
“I want to acknowledge the people who lost so much as a result of the Port Hills fires. You have my deepest sympathies and commitment to improving how our new organisation, Fire and Emergency New Zealand, responds to events like this in the future. I also want to thank all firefighters, emergency responders, support personnel and community volunteers who worked tirelessly in very difficult conditions to keep Christchurch safe.”
Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel this morning thanked Fire and Emergency NZ for the thorough and comprehensive review, and commended the organisation for developing an action plan to address the issues raised.
In any event of this kind, it is always important to review how agencies respond. It is not about blame – it is important that we determine what went well and also identify where mistakes were made and how we could do better in future events,'' the Mayor said.
"The February Port Hills fires were devastating for our city. The death of helicopter pilot Steve Askin, who died trying to save the lives of our residents and their property, was a tragedy. I would like to acknowledge his family at this time. It is also timely to recognise that many people either lost property or had property damaged during the fire. This fire was the biggest and most severe in recent New Zealand history. The FENZ report highlights just how destructive, complex and dangerous the fire was.
"As this review shows the firefighters were working in extremely difficult, often dangerous conditions and I want to thank them for their dedication and professionalism. It’s important to recognise them for their efforts which prevented more lives being lost and properties being damaged or destroyed,'' the Mayor said.
* Christchurch City Council is in the process of finalising its review into the Port Hills fires. Once that is completed the Council will release the findings to those directly affected by the fire, key stakeholders and the public.