The Bay of Plenty is Urged to Take Extra Care During Today’s Fire Strike

Career firefighters are striking between 12:00pm and 1:00pm today.

Kawerau station manager Carl Moon says the response to incidents during a strike will be longer because volunteers will respond initially.

“So [the community] should expect more delays than they would usually get if we were on station, but they would still get a response.”

He asks the community to stay vigilant and pay close attention when lighting a fire or dealing with any potential fire hazard.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union is striking for “a combination of wanting our employer to hear our calls for the state of the equipment, the fact that we require more firefighters throughout the country and about the cancer-causing carcinogens that affect all firefighters,” Moon explains.

He says what they’re asking for also affects the volunteers.

Fire and Emergency are currently negotiating with the union.

Currently, the Bay is in a restricted fire season, meaning a permit is required to light an open-air fire.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand community risk manager Luke Burgess says the recent warm and dry conditions, mixed with stronger winds has increased the fire risk in the region.

“The fire conditions have risen with the drying that's gone on. There’s lots of fuels that are available that are very, very dry to burn in the wildfire context, and these fires will develop and travel very, very quickly.”

He says the restrictions allow Fire and Emergency to give safety guidelines on how to conduct the activity safely, upon issuing a permit.

The Bay of Plenty remains in a restricted fire season until further notice. (IMAGE SUPPLIED: FENZ)

There has been some rain throughout the area over the past week, although “the little bit of rain that we're getting is not enough to lower that already dried out stuff in the period of time that's there,” before the hot and dry conditions come back.

“People look outside, and they see these beautiful green fields, some people don't realise that there is still quite a fire risk there with all the other fuels that are around that are available.”

“We have experts within our organisation that assess those permits and assess the risk in that isolated area where the address point is given on the Check It's Alright site. Then we can issue a permit and give guidelines or even place conditions around that permit to help people lower the risk of the activity of burning off,” says Burgess.

He says the weather conditions will have to change before the region can go back into a regular fire season.

“You'll see weather stations dotted around the area that we have, and they monitor our weather conditions.  Our team also go out and do field testing of actual vegetation.”

The Bay of Plenty will remain in a restricted fire season until further notice.