Karakia for new Type 3 appliances

It was a significant milestone for the Type 3 Appliance Acquisition Project when members of our Pou Takawaenga Māori (Māori Liaison Team) performed a karakia (blessing) on our four new Type 3 appliances at Wellington City Station last week.

The karakia offered the appliances safe and unencumbered travels as they head to the next phase of their journey which will be their evaluation locations - Auckland City, Hamilton, Napier, and Christchurch City. Over the next nine months, all four will be put through their paces.

Project sponsor, National Commander Russell Wood, said the project set out to identify fit for purpose fire appliances.

‘To achieve this, we ensured that the end users’ (firefighters) needs were at the centre of the project, and we made sure groups like the Working Group and evaluation panel were composed of operational firefighters. We have worked closely with our partners in the union and associations.

‘Members of the Working Group talked to nearly 1000 operational staff from across the motu (country) to better understand what they needed from a fire appliance. This feedback can be traced all the way through from those sessions to what we see here today.’

Representatives of the suppliers of the appliances – Angloco (based in Yorkshire, England) and Emergency One (based in Ayrshire, Scotland) joined our executive leadership team, service delivery leadership team, members of the Project Working Group, Steering Committee, and Project team, and Fire and Emergency support staff at the karakia/blessing.

SSO Te Hiku/National Advisor Operations (Service Delivery) and member of the Type 3 Appliance Project Working Group, Quin Webster, said it was a great occasion.

‘It was fantastic to see the culmination of a huge effort from many people, resulting in these impressive vehicles being delivered and ready for the next stage of evaluation.’