Hot Topic: Firefighters forge safer wine industry

“All our projections are that we’re going to see bigger fires, and fires occurring more often,” says Darren Crawford of Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

For the wine industry, wildfires are a threat not only to vines themselves but also to vineyard and winery infrastructure. At the same time, even distant fires can damage grapes through the phenomenon known as smoke taint. Recent research has highlighted that the conditions leading to the devastating ‘Black-Summer’ fires in Australia in 2019-20 will occur every three to 20 years in areas of Central Otago, the Mackenzie Country and Marlborough.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) is working with rural communities and land managers to reduce the risk of fire, and in in regions such as Marlborough those conversations are often with members of the wine industry, to ensure vineyard and winery operators understand the fire risk of their environments and ways to manage such risk. “By their nature, vineyards are often surrounded by grassland farms, and they often have burns themselves,” says Darren, who is Senior Advisor for community readiness and recovery in Nelson and Marlborough.

“So, the messaging around that is things like general property maintenance – keeping your grass short. Also think about your own spark generation, so mowing your vineyards at a time of day when there’s greater humidity, like earlier in the morning or later in the evening, to reduce the spark hazard.”

Central to FENZ’s fire preparedness strategy is ensuring a healthy stream of new volunteers to support their local communities. Across New Zealand, volunteers currently make up 85% of FENZ personnel and provide essential coverage outside of the major cities. “It’s simple – without the volunteers, we don’t have a fire response. So, it’s very critical for us,” Darren explains. “They do this for nothing. They give up their own time, dedicate it to training and development, and then go out and support their communities. We’ve got absolute respect and admiration for our volunteers.”

An increasing number of employers across the wine industry are realising the benefits of having trained FENZ volunteers within their workforce and FENZ has an ongoing campaign to spread that awareness further. “Straight away, they’ve got fire wardens on site, they have staff trained in medical response, they have somebody on the workforce that is trained as a first responder. And if a fire breaks out, they can immediately start doing something about that,” Darren explains.

“They’re also a lot better at planning and risk assessment. And as they move into the officer ranks, they get a lot of leadership training – they’re taught to lead during high-pressure situations. So, for employers, they’ve got people that are capableof dealing with stress and making sound decisions under pressure.”

Spy Valley Bottling Manager Ryan Anderson joined the Blenheim Voluntary Rural Fire Force after returning from Australia, where he was involved with the State Emergency Service. He acknowledges the heavy time commitments involved in being a volunteer firefighter, which during the fire season might require him to leave work three times a day or be unable to come in after battling a fire overnight.

However, the level of training provided to volunteers makes them a valuable asset to any employer, he says. “I honestly can’t overstate the training that they put into you. It is second to none.” Firefighters, by their nature, are risk-averse and risk-aware, Ryan adds. “So, you have someone on-site with experience in dealing with emergency situations, they help ensure there is good emergency planning and can take the lead on health and safety – that all goes hand-in-hand with being trained by FENZ.”

Spy Valley Managing Director Amanda Johnson says that as a family business with strong roots in the community, the company is proud to recruit and support FENZ volunteers. “Not only from a strengthened and safer community point of view, but as employees, they contribute to our culture, and health and safety in our business. We employ two volunteers… and they are calm and responsible with a sense of duty as well as first aid and fire response trained. They make us stronger and more resilient as a business,” Amanda says. “It should be on our recruitment questions – because it shows a depth of character and care in these people. To us as a business, it is an advantage and a quality hire.”

Bryan and Amanda Johnson.

Ryan further outlines some of the skills that New Zealand firefighters are trained in that directly cross through to the wine industry. These include chemical handling, gas and hazardous substance handling, working in confined spaces, pump operations, dynamic risk assessment and first aid.

With the leading cause of grass fires within a vineyard due to a tractor or mower contact with stones, the volunteers can also immediately respond to grass fires. “Case in point, here at Spy Valley, we are in the process of completing a dedicated fire trailer for estate use that will have water, pumps and multiple hoses and hand tools available for quick response to grass fires within our site.”

Tyler McComb is Vineyard Manager with Delegat Limited and has been a member of the Wairau Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade for the past five years. He explains that in addition to the benefit of many transferable skills, the company’s support to its volunteer workforce to attend calls and training is reflected in greater employee engagement at work.

“Personally, I have met some fantastic people through FENZ. Some of these people have worked in our company, all of which are members of our local community. I feel a real sense of pride to wear the uniform and apply what I have learnt both in the brigade and bringing those skills into my career,” Tyler says. “The skills I have learnt have helped me become confident in any emergency and have developed me into a confident leader within our industry.”

This story ran in the September edition of Winepress magazine and is republished with permission from Wine Marlborough.