Arthur's Pass Volunteer Rural Fire Force
Arthur's Pass Volunteer Rural Fire Force |
|
Click Arthur's Pass FWI for datailed fire weather information courtesy of Softrock.co.nz
APVRFF is known by everyone locally as the 'Fire Party'. It is a source of pride and an outlet for community spirit in a village of only 40-60 permanent residents. Arthur's Pass Fire Party holds training nights three Thursdays a month which cover a diverse range of relevant subjects such as fire ground safety, first aid, working with aircraft, vehicle extraction and map reading.
Arthur's Pass Fire party liaises and co operates with other emergency agencies including the NZ Fire Service, DOC,
St John Ambulance, Westpac Trust Rescue and the Police to manage local emergencies.
Incidents that the team attend include:
Appliance and equipment
Fire Party's 'old' appliance was a 1970s Commer with a Darley pump. It recently suffered a serious mechanical failure and won't return to service with APRFF.
Selwyn District Council purchased a more modern crew cab 4WD vehicle in late 2004. The new truck was progressivley converted over 12 months to provide Arthur's Pass with a custom appliance suited to our unique needs. The lockers and plumbing were designed by APRFF and West Melton RFF with assistance from
the NZ Fire Service, and were built by Sicon in Darfield.
The new Toyota seats a crew of 5 and is fitted with removable Firemaster and Wajax pumps.
It carries an unusual array of equipment due to the diverse tasks it performs. The bulk of the gear is
for vegetation fire fighting. However because of our remote setting we train to fight house/structure fires externally, and carry some MVA equipment for dealing with accidents until Springfield Fire Brigades Rescue appliance arrives.
Equipment on board includes:
Arthur's Pass Rescue - Home Page www.apres.org.nz