Incident Report
Subject: 1 fire-fighter fatality 6 hospitalised in New Zealand Cool Store Explosion Date of Email reporting Incident: Tue 08/04/2008 Report Detail: Fire investigators may have to wait until late tomorrow to start their scene examination of the blast and fire, which left Hamilton firefighter Derek Lovell dead and seven colleagues injured. Shifts of firefighters from all over the central North Island spent this morning and last night at the scene. Tauranga's chief fire officer, Ron Devlin, today said the 30-odd firefighters would continue dampening down hotspots at the coolstore which first exploded shortly after 4pm on Saturday. Mr Devlin said a meeting between Icepak, Environment Waikato, Fire Service and insurance company staff would be held today "so that we can work out a nice, clean strategy to move forward and get this thing out". Fire Service incident controller Des Irving, from Taupo, said staff from out of the city were sharing shifts while their exhausted Hamilton colleagues dealt with the loss of one of their own. "The fact that people have come from so far, paid and volunteers, shows how seriously we are taking this." Mr Irving said the store, which was more than 100m long, was full of cheese and venison. He said the fire was under control and there was no danger of any further explosions. "We just have to let it burn out. There's a lot of steel in there and that's still retaining and trapping a lot of heat." Mr Irving said the priority for the Fire Service was to get the blaze out, then the investigation into its cause would be looked at. "Until then, everything is just speculation." When the Waikato Times visited the scene, it resembled a mini-war zone. Small pockets of fire were still visible, as was thick grey smoke. A lack of wind meant the smoke went straight up. Blackened blocks of plastic-covered cheese were melted to metal, concrete and insulation material, while thousands of sides of venison had spilled out of the twisted and charred building frame onto concrete and grass verges. The smell was reminiscent of a fatty barbecue grille. The fire site is clearly visible from SH1 and when the Times was there traffic was crawling past it. Scene guards have been placed at the end of Devine Rd and have been constantly been turning people away. No residents have been evacuated. Faced with one of the largest fires many of them had ever encountered, firefighters had to deal with a second major battle a lack of water. Waikato fire commander Roy Breeze said without access to water on the site or hydrants, up to 20 water tankers had to be used to truck water in. "You can't fight big fires with tankers," Mr Breeze said. "It doesn't matter how many tankers you've got, they just can't feed the hoses fast enough." Tamahere Model Country School's water supply and nearby swimming pools were drawn upon to fight the fire, Mr Breeze said. The school was closed today and was to be closed tomorrow as well. Mr Breeze said many companies in remote areas do not have water available on site and he hoped the Icepak blaze would be a lesson to others. "It's the norm for quite a lot of buildings in rural areas, except where people make facilities for firefighting water available. If they want their building saved, we can't do it without the water." New Zealand Fire Service national commander Mike Hall said if Icepak had been protected by a sprinkler system there would have been a completely different result. "Then my firefighters would not have been put at risk, but it is not an uncommon arrangement." Mr Hall did not accept Icepak's excuse that a sprinkler system would have frozen over. However, he stopped short of holding Icepak accountable for the disaster. "I'm not holding anybody accountable. We don't yet know what caused it." An independent investigation would also be held along with their standard investigations. Mr Breeze said a report that an ammonia tank threatened by flames would have killed everyone within 1km if it had exploded was "slightly dramatised". He said if the tank had been a full LPG tank, as firefighters had feared, it would have "scorched" an area that size if it had exploded. But he said it was an empty ammonia tank that had not been used for about five years. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/4468250a6579.html
-- Tamahere Explosion Condition Updates Two of the firefighters admitted to hospital yesterday following the explosion and then blaze in Tamahere are in a critical condition. A 36-year-old, listed as stable in a ward overnight in Waikato Hospital, underwent surgery today and transferred back to the intensive care unit. A 43-year-old transferred to Middlemore national burns unit last night is also critical. Three firefighters are in Waikato Hospital's high dependency unit - two 51-year-old men, one of whom will stay in the unit while the other, and a 35-year-old, are expected to be moved to wards. A 37-year-old, first listed as critical on arrival, is now in a stable and improving condition and likely to be transferred from intensive care to either the high dependency unit or a ward. Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan Adams today said the death of 48-year-old senior station officer Derek Lovell last night was a tragedy. Two months ago, Mr Lovell and the rest of his Red Team celebrated the opening of the hospital's new entrance and car parking building with a mock rescue from the top of the eight-storey car park. Mr Lovell and another fire officer "rescued" Mrs Adams as part of the exhibition. "Derek put me totally at ease in the lead up to and during the rescue," she said. "Our condolences go out to his family and his extended family in the fire service." ALSO, audio of Dr Felicity Dumble, Waikato District Health Board medical officer of health.
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