New Zealand Fire Service and Urban Search and Rescue media update 5:30 pm

Still in active rescue stage – our priority is to find survivors but there have been no signs of life today. The city has been divided into 4 main sectors and 120 sub sectors for the USAR operations

Helicopter operations:

• We advise the media that helicopter operations over the city are part of the USAR building assessment process, particularly in buildings where stairwells have collapsed and safe internal access is uncertain, and you can expect to see more such activity over the city over the coming days. International effort

• Huge international operation involving Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams from Singapore, Australia (Queensland and NSW), China, UK, US, Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand.

• New Zealand, Singapore, NSW, US, Queensland and Taiwan USAR teams are carrying out a 24/7 systematic search of the city, intensively re-checking sites.

• Today the UK team was at the PGG building, teams from NZ Japan and China were at the CTV building and a team from NZ was at the Cathedral.

Large-scale sites; PGG building, CTV building and the Cathedral • Fire are crews at CTV building to assist USAR crews and confine any fire outbreak.

• Crews working on the Cathedral have been hampered by aftershocks.

Heavy machinery is on its way to assist.

• Aftershocks are also delaying progress assessing the stability of the Grand Chancellor Hotel. This continues to be highly unstable.

There is a secure cordon around the area which will remain until engineers can determine a plan of action allow USAR technicians to safely assess the buildings in the area around the hotel. There is no plan to enter the hotel at this point.

• We hope to get into the area around the Grand Chancellor as soon as possible subject to the engineers’ assessment and any further aftershocks.

Operation Reassurance

Roving patrols involving Fire Service, Police and military are being carried out in the worst effected suburbs to assess the immediate needs of the public in those areas.

Fire safety post earthquake

We are urging the public to be especially aware of the following points:

• Use caution when cooking, particularly with portable devices such as camping stoves and BBQs\take particular care with power being restored to buildings

• If you have any concerns with electrical devices, get these checked by an electrician.

• Check your hot water cylinders, we have had two fires where linen has fallen on wiring.

• If you are using portable generators, ensure these are well-ventilated

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