Firefighters have banned a second ‘unreliable’ fire appliance in less than a week.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) has extended its ‘blacking’ of a fire engine, to include Christchurch’s rescue tender, which carries critical lifesaving rescue equipment to cut crash victims from vehicles.
NZPFU spokesperson Boyd Raines says the Man appliance has issues which are just too great for the union to ignore.
This follows the rare action of Auckland firefighters blacking their lead truck last week out of concern that someone could get killed.
“They’re all the same truck with bad DNA. The risk to firefighters and the public is too great. Christchurch firefighters cite ongoing issues, build issues and the truck’s quality of performance as reasons for pulling firefighters from their appliance,” says Raines.
The Auckland appliance’s failures include water pumps that don’t work, door latches falling off trapping firefighters, major engine trouble and gear failure.
