Post Guy Fawkes Report

The Fire Service is delighted that New Zealand escaped largely unscathed from this year’s Guy Fawkes celebrations.

National Commander Mike Hall said there was the expected increase in calls to Communication Centres, however, the impact was significantly less than last year as celebrations were largely confined to 5 and 6 November. Last year, the increased activity spanned four days, from Thursday 5 November through to Sunday 8 November.

“Since the change in fireworks regulations in 2007 we have seen a noticeable drop in the number of callouts to fireworks-related incidents and this year only a handful caused any significant damage. Sadly one of these included serious damage to a Rotorua house,” he said.

Historically, the weather and the day of the week that Guy Fawkes falls upon has an impact on the workload for emergency services. This year, both were favourable for a safer celebration with rain in Christchurch and Wellington and plenty of moisture in Auckland.

“The Fire Service continues to urge people to attend public displays rather than take all the risks that are associated with setting off fireworks at home.”

Nationally, the number of fire-related calls increased from an average of 120 a day to about 275 on 5 and 6 November. In Auckland the average number of fire-related calls rose from 34 to about 108 for the two days.

This compares with 2006, the year before the new regulations, when nationally, fire-related calls jumped to 540 on Saturday 4 November. The number of calls for Sunday 5 November remained very high at 449 before returning to normal.

“In those days, we used to bring extra firefighters in to the larger centres to crew spare appliances and deal with the mayhem. These days, Guy Fawkes is very much business-as-usual and we are able to easily handle the extra work with the crews already on duty,” said Mr Hall

ENDS

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