Being aware of false alarms

Darren Crawford, Senior Advisor for community readiness and recovery for Nelson and Marlborough, says the region is seeing a lot of accidental activations. “It can be as simple as burning toast in the kitchen.”

All sorts of things can cause accidental activation – knocking sprinkler heads in the winery, leaking roofs where water has come in and affected the wiring of alarm systems that’s activated them accidentally. “And so there’s a lot of human factors and then just making sure that if you are getting false alarms, you do try to remedy it and make sure you have the right help so that you can mitigate them.”

consequences: unnecessarily removing volunteers from the workplace and preventing the brigade from responding to a real emergency. “It means that we were not able to respond to another call because we’re out there, investigating a potential fire that’s actually a false alarm.”

Safe Practices in Vineyards

There are specific things rural businesses such as wineries and vineyards can do to make their properties safer. These include:

- Signposting your property – rural property numbers are invaluable for a quick response by emergency vehicles

- Ensuring emergency vehicles have easy access to the site

- Ensuring there is an adequate water supply with fire and emergency hose connections for use by emergency services

- Checking if portable pumps can be positioned within seven metres of open water supplies

- Making sure firewood is stacked away from infrastructure and external buildings

The best practice for business premises is the installation of hand-operated fire extinguishers and/or hose reels. Accidental fires are more likely to occur during working hours due to the greater use of electrical equipment, heating and normal processes.

“Wineries typically have a very important and expensive infrastructure. And a way to preserve that from wildfires is to plant a low volatility plant species around those strategic buildings,” Darren explains.

“By doing simple things like keeping grass short, mowing at certain times day, having defensible spaces, thinking about water supplies with hardstand beside them, so fire trucks can park up and access them.”

They also need fire truck access of four metres,” he says. “It’s about getting those messages to the sector, to protect them, but also to make it easier for us to look after them.”