Canterbury flooding – reminder to be prepared

Like many of us across the country, National Response Capability Manager, Paul Turner closely followed events with the flooding red warning alert in Canterbury over the weekend.

“With severe flooding in many areas of Canterbury, our crews have been working to assist regional civil defence emergency. It’s a strong reminder that flooding occurs across urban, and extensively across, the rural and volunteer areas that we respond in.

“One of the main things that our firefighters can do to be prepared for a flooding event is to complete the Working Safely Around Water training modules. This will equip you with the skills, tools, and knowledge to help keep you and your communities safe.

“A big shout out - thank you - to those of you who have completed the Working Safely Around Water modules. For those of you who have not completed the training, please take the time to get that under your belt – incidents of extreme rainfall are projected to get worse in many parts of New Zealand.”

The Working Safely Around Water training module is on Learning Station(external link) (in the search box type in 'Working safely around water'). If you are based in a rural fire district or volunteer brigade and have any problems getting on to Learning Station, please contact WorkingSafelyAroundWater@fireandemergency.nz  – the project team will send you a USB to use for the training and will talk to you about completing the training records.

Paul said he wanted to express his sincere thanks to all the Fire and Emergency personnel who have worked very hard over the last few days to protect people and property in Canterbury.

A reminder to not wear your level 2 PPE in water, it gets heavy and will put you at risk. Wet weather gear is the right kit to be wearing when working around water.