Spotlight on building rules, fire crew resourcing following Wellington fatal fire

A spotlight is on building rules and the resourcing of fire crews following Wellington’s fatal Newtown fire.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has tasked Housing Minister Megan Woods to look into issues around building regulations, and whether there were any changes that could be made after it was confirmed six people died on Tuesday.

“One of the challenges here is we don’t yet know what’s happened,” Hipkins said on Wednesday afternoon. “We will get more information fairly soon as the police investigation continues.”

He said what comes out of the police investigation would “inform decisions about what a future review might look like”.

READ MORE:
* Police confirm investigation now arson as teams move into Loafers Lodge
* ‘A roof over your head is better than no roof, except when it burns down and kills you’
* What safety regulations were at play for the Loafers Lodge hostel?

When asked if they would consider changing the law to require buildings similar to Loafer’s Lodge to have sprinklers, Woods said it was the responsibility of any government following a tragedy “to go and ask questions”.

“To say, are there things that we should do differently? Do we need to change those?

“Of course we’ll ask those questions.

“I’ve already asked officials to give me advice in terms of what we need to do to ensure that buildings are safe for New Zealanders.”

Green Party co-leader James Shaw continued to raise questions around the availability of gear and trucks for fire crews.

The Firefighter’s Union listed multiple times Wellington fire trucks were ‘offline’ between May 12 and May 14 due to staffing issues.

In addition, crews did not have a second giant ladder truck in fighting the Newtown fire as it was broken down. Fire and Emergency region manager Bruce Stubbs told RNZ on Wednesday it had mechanical problems, and he did not know if having it would have helped in the Loafer’s Lodge rescue.

On Tuesday, Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds, said she had assurances from FENZ and the district commander who was on the ground, “they had all they needed to respond” to the Wellington fire.

But on Wednesday, Edmonds said subsequently, she had crews on the ground raise historical issues with fire appliances.

She was attempting to get a reassurance from Fire Emergency New Zealand the plan to fix some of them was underway, as one of them was operational.

Shaw said he did not know whether there were people in some housing situations at risk due to the shortages, “but I also can’t say that there isn’t, and that to me is deeply concerning”.

“The fact that we’re finding out about this as a result of the fire in which we’ve got multiple fatalities, rather than because we actually have some ideas about this.”

Edmonds said it was not “just a case” of buying a new ladder fire truck.

“I understand the board has signed off new appliances, however, they actually need to get them made overseas.”