CRITICAL DELAY: FENZ Truck Failure Strands Firefighters, Seven Minutes Late to Raging House Fire

A life‑threatening equipment failure yesterday morning saw a fire truck unable to respond to a major house fire in South Auckland, leaving firefighters stranded and highlighting the critical risks posed by Fire and Emergency New Zealand's (FENZ) failing fleet and inadequate resourcing.

Shortly after midnight, an Otara fire crew was dispatched to a well‑involved house fire following multiple 111 calls. However, what should have been a one‑minute response became a seven‑minute nightmare.

"A fire truck, just 1‑minute away from a well‑involved house fire, sat stranded unable to respond because its brakes failed to release. This is every firefighter's nightmare," David Phillips, NZPFU Representative, said.

The crew was unable to release the brakes due to a failure in the air system of the 2008 appliance. This loaner truck was assigned to the station after their primary truck was removed by FENZ to its under‑resourced training centre. Crucially, the Officer in Charge immediately called for backup upon realising the truck was inoperable.

Delayed Response and Dangerous Understaffing

Despite the crew being alerted immediately, the replacement truck's low‑air warning meant the appliance took seven crucial minutes to leave the station. Video footage shows frustrated firefighters, fully donned in gear, desperately trying to get the truck moving, knowing the fire was doubling in size every 30 seconds.

A second appliance eventually arrived within eight minutes, but the delay means crews were seriously understaffed until the backup appliance arrived.

Station Officer Matt Wilson emphasised the danger: "At an already tense time, having our gear fail like that is beyond frustrating. We are so lucky no one was trapped in this house fire. Not being able to do our job when the public call us really hurts our firefighters."

"This situation is highly dangerous for responding firefighters, and would have impacted the ability to safely rescue occupants had anyone needed to be rescued from the house at the time," Phillips added.

FENZ 'Rolling the Dice' with Public Safety

The NZPFU confirmed this incident is just the latest in an extensive list of fleet failures that the Union has highlighted repeatedly.

Phillips linked the incident directly to FENZ management failures: "Thankfully no one was injured due to the delay this time, but FENZ continue to roll the dice with an aging fleet and lack of appropriate contingency in the system, leaving the public to suffer the consequence."

He noted that FENZ had carried out hours of work following the failure to replace parts on the broken fire truck. "It would have been good if this had been done before they tried to drive to a house fire," he commented, before noting that firefighters are currently only able to speak publicly about these critical failures due to the ongoing industrial action.

"Usually, we aren't allowed to talk publicly about this sort of thing, because it would bring FENZ into disrepute and that's against our policy."

"Firefighters are set to strike yet again today for one hour from midday," Phillips said.