10
Uniformed presence
heartens residents
The value of a smile and a uniform could
not be over-estimated as first response
teams moved about the suburbs of
Christchurch.
Shane Briggs, manager of the
Palmerston North USAR response team,
said people were reassured simply by
the presence of uniformed personnel.
While career and volunteer fire crews
moved around their districts responding
to 111 calls or blatantly obvious need,
USAR responded to calls fielded by local
councils.
Canterbury teams were overloaded,
so outside teams were bought in for
five-days. There are 18 response teams
based around the country and three task
force teams. Response teams are first
response specialists, normally organised
through local bodies, and have primary
light rescue and assessment as their
focus, while task force teams are NZFS
post- assets and undertake specialist rescue
quake
(such as subterranean or requiring
breathing apparatus), engineering
report
assessment and immediate repairs such
as shoring.
“If the job was simple, we’d do it. More
serious jobs were referred to building
inspectors, etc. There were 1000 jobs
outstanding when we arrived, mainly
evaluating chimneys and other minor
structural elements.” Green stickers
placed on building by engineers meant
safe to inhabit, yellow meant limited
access for retrieval of valuables etc, red
meant stay out.
“A big part of the work, as the NZFS
crews will have found, was talking
to the property-owners or tenants,
reassuring them the property was safe,
was safe but needs work, or please find
somewhere else to live for the meantime.
We listened to some life-stories, some
people didn’t want us on their property,
while others clapped us when we turned
up.”
Shane said the teams also talked
Earthquake Commission processes and
what to do when aftershocks hit. “ ‘Drop,
cover, hold’ is still relevant.”
Helping people secure their premises by
fixing jammed doors or lifting carpets
sodden with silt was also part of the
job. “There are quite a lot of primary
health issues with seepage, especially if
K1
it’s not bad enough for people to move
out. But inhaling mould spores or living
with carpet that has sewage seepage are
not great scenarios,” said Shane. His crew
helped lift carpet and remove silt from
some premises.
Shane is a tutor at the Emergency
Management Academy in Palmerston
North and has NZFS experience and a raft
of specialist rescue qualifications. He says
all response teams can always do with
more members.
Any volunteers should contact their local
teams direct, but he warns that being
both a volunteer firefighter and a USAR
team member is only for those with a
huge amount of spare time on their
hands. His team – NZRT4 – currently has
13 members and has clocked 2385 hours
of training and operations in the last 10
months. It has done 14 callouts for rope
and water rescues since January. It runs
a two-shift system on 20 minute call-out,
responding to pagers.
The Palmerston North team is one of the
few rapid water extraction specialists and
also has rope rescue experts, some with
helicopter qualifications, so it gets to
move around the country as well as doing
local work.
“The response teams need a mix of people
– varying heights and weights and skills.
Like firefighters, USAR people need to be

dedicated to being available and prepared
to tackle a variety of scenarios. “We only
take people with the right attitude.” Joe
Public can be trained to be response team
members through NZQA unit standards,
but task force teams (the guys we all saw
on tv) are highly specialised and qualified
in construction and basic engineering or
advanced rescue.
Response teams do have to have a basic
knowledge of collapse patterns and light
rescue in urban zones, but are not qualified
to condemn buildings.
Despite the obvious huge bill for
repair and rebuild and the emotional
and financial strain on individuals
and companies as a result of the
quake, Shane said, on an international
rescue scale, Christchurch was a minor
annoyance. “No deaths, nobody buried,
no international teams required, no
international food or other supplies
required.”
The size and shallowness of the
quake were similar to the Haitian
quake that wrought huge devastation
and thousands are still in tents. “It’s
The old Glad
Wrap trick
How many ways can you stop a
chimney collapsing. NZFS and USAR
personnel have found out all sorts of
ways in Christchurch:
• wrap it in Glad Wrap ( as
demonstrated by Palmerston North
USAR);
• packaging card strapped with
tape;
• bound with strops;
• boarded up with timber strips…
• and …
Or they can be disassembled brick by
brick, or pulled over – remembering,
of course, to ascertain whether it will
take any of the roof or wall with it!
November 2010
11
testament to our building codes and
builders that the damage was limited.
We were lucky. The time of the shake
definitely helped in the dead and buried
scenario.
“In many ways this was a big dress
rehearsal. We didn’t have to get into
triage and the hard decisions belonged
to the engineers who condemned
heritage buildings. So the procedures
have been refreshed, but not really
tested. Of course, on the other hand, we
should be grateful….”
Shane said that on the whole the
operation went smoothly. “We were
supposed to be able to airlift our trailer
and vehicle. That didn’t happen but
Christchurch hardware chain stores
came to the party with tools and we
borrowed a council ute.”
“Hopefully all the debriefs will be
collated and distributed to all involved.
“It would be a colossal waste of time
if we turn up at the next big job and
have to re-invent heaps of stuff. We
have to make sure the debriefers talk to
the people on the ground. It’s the little
post-
things that happen in the field, like not
enough cross-communication, that grow quake
into big things – unnecessarily,” he said.
report
It’s no time for blushes.