The Muster - Adam Coley NZ Fire Service

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joined this afternoon by risk reduction advisor for the New
Zealand Fire Service based in the Vacagle, Adam Coley. Adam,
thanks for being on the show this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
How are you. Oh, I'm all right, Thank you, Olivia.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
That's good, Adam, risk reduction advisor. What does that involve?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Right? So, I'm a member of a team of four
people down here in Ndicago. When basically we look after
the evacuation compliance and evacuation schemes for businesses and other
various buildings. We issue fire permits during times when permits

(00:37):
are needed. We also look after the firefighting water supplies
for rural properties or places outside of the reticulated water supply.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
A very important job when it comes to our fire
service and our rural fire brigades being able to have
the resources they need.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
By the sounds of it, part of the building consent
in certain areas required to have access or have firefighting
water within a certain distance from the building being protected.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I understand recently there has been a few more house
fires than we would like. We obviously don't want any
house fires out there, but in the rural setting as well,
so I thought it would just be good to have
a chat to here in regards to some of the
general fire safety in a rural setting as we head
into winter, when you get busy, some things can get
forgotten about. And we've got the fires burning at home

(01:30):
as such to be able to keep people warm, as
well as other things like heaters and the like. So
what are sort of the key things people should be
thinking about before leaving the house at the beginning or
the end of the day.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
A lot of the similar hazards and rural settings as
we do in town, So things like unattended cooking is
still New Zealand's number one cause of fire, which is
closely followed by the charging of lithium batteries. Like it's
quite a concern for us the amount of batteries that

(02:05):
are out there now and people probably aren't quite as
aware as they should be of the actual dangers behind them,
and so one thing we're trying to promote is to
not just leave them sitting on charge, and you know,
any damage or anything like that, notice to it, just
to make sure that it's if you think it was
suspected being damaged, you get it checked out. Because they

(02:27):
can literally just start at any point and middle of
the night, middle of the day, doesn't really matter, doesn't
even have to be plugged in or the equipment even
beyond it. These batteries are quite dangerous and they present
quite a hazard.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
And so that's going to be for a lot of
people with workshops out there. They've gone and charged the
drill back out, gone off and done some jobs, come
back and usually yeah, they're coming back and taking it
off when they needed again your action couraging put it on.
And then maybe when you come in to feed the
dogs to do something, glad to take it off.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Charge put it on, and you know you're going away,
just perhaps go and switch it off at the wall
before we leave, or we even recommend people looking to
the likes of timers. So if you know how long
it usually takes to charge, if you said it on
a timer, is that when you walk away, it turns
off when it's finished, and it's just ways of trying
to avoid it just sitting in perpetual cycles of charging.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Now it makes complete sense, and it comes to vehicles
and that obviously the tractors are getting out there and
being used at this time of year, but just that
general awareness around vehicles probably more the motorbike in that
that isn't getting used as much maybe in the winter
unless you're unlucky and have to be running around on
the bike and those cold wintery days. Just doing those
checks and just keeping vigilant.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
There's always the risk of rodent nests in the spring,
the bird nests and the tractors around the exhausts and stuff,
and it's just always good practice after any period of time,
but just to have a lot check for for build
ups of dry materials or anything in places that it
could potentially start combustioning.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
What are you guys seeing out there or have you
got any messages that you'd like to share in regards
to that general Just on farm every day piece.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
After October's wind events, there was a lot of trees
and debris everywhere, and just so yeah, so there's a
lot of wind debris and fallen trees and all that
sort of stuff, and when people are out there cleaning
things up and making piles, just to have a bit
of consideration about how close that pile of stuff to

(04:38):
be burned. As to things you don't want to burn,
we recommend a minimum of thirty meters, but sort of
the further away the better, and just to make sure
that you're checking the wind before you light, Like the
wind could be fine for the day that you're burning it,
but then in two or three days time, it might
do a change and blow back and up under a hedge.

(05:00):
You know, everyone knows how dry it can get underneath
the hedge. It doesn't take much of an end but
to move under there with a decent airflow through it,
and it can get away. And we saw quite a
lot of that, and the follow up from the from
the wind, there was a lot of people burning down
hedges that hadn't fallen over. So it's always it's always

(05:22):
a risk that you've just got to try and try
and keep on top of it.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, and as winter comes around and some of those
jobs like that are now going to get tied it up,
some people won't have got to those trees yet. So
it's a really good point as they start pulling those together,
might not going to be getting them a lit now,
but thinking about when you go to light them in
the in the summer months especially, Yeah, how what are
those risks it could be? And just taking their extra
few minutes to think up a plan could save you

(05:46):
a lot of hav it later.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
On the other thing just to keep in mind is
although you may not need a permit for the for
the burn that you're part taking in, but it's always
a good idea just to give a phone call and
just give them a heads up that you're going to
be doing a burn. That way, if they're getting reports
of a fire in the area, they can see that

(06:08):
by you, there's potentially a controlled burn going on here.
So I mean, you're not going to get in trouble
for it. Like, as long as you're doing everything you're
supposed to do, there shouldn't be any issues. It's just
more a matter of helping us not turn out a
full brigade to what's ultimately a controlled burn. Sure you've

(06:29):
got your socks and gun boots one meter away from
the heater so that they're not catching on fire overnight.
It's all the usual follow safety messages that I'm sure
everyone's been here enough promote forever.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
There as those parkers and that with their gear starts
to come indoors to get dried out at night, just
having a think about where you're putting that, and there's
nothing worse than yeah, also melting holes and you went
with a gear for the next day because it doesn't
work so well either. Thank you very much dam for
your time, and I'm sure some of those tips will
be some time and reminders for everybody.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
It's not a problem at all. Thank you very much
for leading us spread a message