Wellington 'vulnerable' after losing FENZ ladder truck to fire, senior firefighter says

Wellington's firefighting capabilities have been weakened even further after one of the region's two high-ladder trucks caught fire, a senior firefighter says.The Thorndon Station's 32-metre aerial ladder truck began smoking when travelling along Glenmore Street, Northland about 6.10pm on Saturday.No one was hurt in the blaze and the fire was snuffed out quickly, but it now leaves the region with only one high ladder applicance, with the other truck out of commission "indefinitely".Senior station officer and New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) Wellington president Clark Townsley was inside another truck following behind at the time.Speaking to RNZ from the scene, Townsley said he heard a "huge bang" as they passed the Botanical Gardens."A lot of oil came out of the exhaust of the aerial appliance and then it was just a load of smoke that came out, took up the whole street, all the cars had to slam the brakes on," Townsley said."It was lucky there wasn't a car accident to be honest. I've never seen so much smoke out of a vehicle ever."Flames were then seen coming out of the side of the truck before firefighters doused the fire with high pressure hoses."We were lucky that we were actually following because we were on our way up to Karori ... just as it blew up," Townsley said."We just had to go into emergency mode straight away and the truck had to pull over and we had to start getting to work to put the flames out and deal with a firetruck on fire."The aging Thorndon truck had been in service for over 20 years and previously blew a turbo when travelling to Auckland.Both of Wellington's high ladder firetrucks also broke down around the same time in 2022.Underlining the region's depleted and vulnerable firefighting resources, the sole high ladder truck based in Newtown also had a dicey mechanical track record.The truck, nicknamed "Christine" by firefighters after the killer car in a Stephen King horror novel, had been a catchword at select committee level as the government scrutinised Fire and Emergency's (FENZ) leadership and operations.A Wellington fire truck has been taken off the road after its engine caught fire - prompting a response from a fellow crew.Supplied/NZPFU"It's got a pretty checkered history and that was off the run for over two years at one stage because of its reliability problems," Townsley said."So yeah, we're pretty nervous right now."With two high ladder aerial appliances now down to one for all of Wellington, FENZ's emergency capacity across the region was even more vulnerable, Townsley said."Effectively what we have is that we, with two aerial appliances like this, we have four sides of the building covered. Now we're down to two," he said."If you're talking about height-wise, we can fight fires up to nine storeys high with the ones that we have here with the 32 metres [aerial ladder]. Anything over four storeys, we can't do anything. So it's a significant drop in capability."Townsley said the latest setback again demonstrated that greater investment was needed in firefighting services."At the moment, we have no fat in the system," he said."So if we [lose] one of these vehicles, there is no spare. That is a significant problem. I mean, any other fleet would have a spare truck, not us. And in a critical emergency service, it's almost unacceptable."National Secretary Wattie Watson said appliances were being moved between regions to assist with cover - a systemic problem that needed urgent action to fix."There just aren't enough around the country. We have far less aerial appliances in 2026 than we had in the 1990s."We've had occasions where the other Wellington aerial's had to go up to Auckland to help cover Auckland."The loss of the firetruck comes during a torrid period for FENZ, after a damning report this week accused the agency of repeatedly giving wrong answers to questions from a Parliamentary Committee, creating a perception that FENZ leaders were trying to mislead an inquiry into the nation's fire engine fleet.FENZ Minister Brooke van Velden said she no longer had confidence in the organisation's chief executive Kerry Gregory following a "serious breach" of the 'no-surprises' clause.