BURNING ISSUES

“Out! Out! Out!” Incident controller Greg Flaws has called it into the crew radios. The fire has spread from room two, flicked along the sarking in the ceiling and taken hold in room four. It’s a new level of danger: flashover is about to occur. Flaws has judged it from the behaviour of the flames and the sudden rise in temperature.

“It means everything – carpets to wall lining, everything in that room – is going to catch on fire at the same time,” he says.

The firefighters emerge from the house with the strange weighty gait of astronauts. Their masks resemble gas masks used in times of war and their breathing sounds like Darth Vader.

Minutes later, the thermal imaging camera records temperatures of greater than 650°C at the flames.

This fire was deliberately lit at 10am at 724 Tākaka Valley Highway, but it’s not arson; in fact, it may help to save lives. The house’s owners offered it to the Tākaka Volunteer Fire Brigade as a training exercise, and chief fire officer Philip Woolf grabbed the opportunity.

“To get live house burns in today’s world as a training option, we treat it like gold, because with all the advocacy work we’re doing around fire awareness, we don’t go to many house fires any more.”

The golden opportunity was extended to 50 Fire and Emergency New Zealand regional firefighters from the Colling-wood, Tākaka, Upper Tākaka and Wainui brigades in Golden Bay, plus recruits and trainers from Greymouth, Murchison, Nelson and Christchurch.

For many, it’s the first house fire they have attended, but the flames don’t make exceptions for newcomers. A senior firefighter walks past some young recruits carrying their helmets: “Put your lids on, boys.”

The derelict farmhouse sits back off the main road. It has tested free of asbestos and is empty, except for old sofas and beds donated by the firefighters’ families. In thick smoke, the furniture will be a trip hazard and produce toxic fumes as it burns. Toxic, and real.

The only crews permitted inside the burning building are those qualified to wear breathing apparatus (BA):