Hutt Valley Fire Police were amongst those responded to assist with the discovery of potentially dangerous chemicals at an address in Stokes Valley this afternoon.

Members assisted with evacuations of neighbouring properties while the NZ Police, NZ Fire Service and the NZ Army Explosives Ordnance Disposal rendered the scene safe.

Stokes Valley residents may have heard a loud 'bang' from the vicinity of Delaney Park; this was a deliberate detonation by the guys from EOD.

Hutt Valley Fire Police, along with the NZ Police, maintained a safety perimeter to keep members of the public away from the danger zone.

There's a couple more images after the jump.

Tuesday 19th of January saw a Second Alarm transmitted for a Garage fire in Woburn. The fire was reported as well involved and had started to spread to the neighbouring house when it was brought under control.

Members of Hutt Valley Fire Police assisted crews from Hutt, Seaview, Avalon and Johnsonville stations with traffic management and light refreshments.

Happy New Year from the Hutt Valley Volunteer Fire Police!

Training for HVFP resumed on Monday with a trip around the corner and a drill involving three of our key capabilities; lighting, salvage, and traffic management.

Broken up into small teams HVFP members were put to work, creating a 'one lane shunt' to protect an incident scene; establishing salvage kit and a portable dam ready for use; and setting up lighting to light up a building's exterior.

The teams operated with minimal officer supervision, and after each was completed critique was rendered. Each time we do this there's something (or someone) different involved, and we're always learning.

Some images below...

At about lunchtime today the pagers of HVFP members lit up with another activation; this for Salvage in central Lower Hutt, and our first activation for our Salvage capability.

RIMU4926 and 4928 responded to the BCITO Offices (formerly the Timezone Gaming Arcade) on High Street where a water pipe that was being worked on had through a combination of circumstances, 'let go' of a lot of water.

Firefighters from Hutt, Seaview and Avalon responded; they helped with the initial Salvage work (saving papers and other equipment from water damage) and the Fire Police Unit with it's AquaVac's were able to extract the majority of the water that had damaged a storage area and part of an open-plan office space.

SSO Ackroyd gets his 'hands dirty' with the AquaVac.

This turned out to be an excellent 'commissioning' for our Salvage role in the Valley, and our ability to provide Salvage for the Valley should improve response times for Salvage needs in the Valley; the next nearest Salvage capability is based at Kilbirnie with our friends from Wellington Fire Support.

Hutt Valley Fire Police, along with friends from Wainuiomata and Paraparaumu Fire Police Units, partook in some training of another sort on Monday 14th: Some Team Building at the Petone 'Strike'.

“It was a chance to meet these people in a social rather than working environment” says SSO David Ackroyd, OIC of the Hutt Valley Fire Police and organiser of the event, “and for everyone to get to know each other better, and for the Units to get to know each other better.”

Over the last couple of years the Unit has worked more and more extensively with its counterparts from the surrounding areas and so it was nice to be able to invite them to join us at an end-of-year gathering. Developing those relationships makes a big different when it comes to providing mutual support.

And as for the Bowling? A great night was had by all, and in the end it was determined that 'we all won'. There were some standout scores on the night, however that was of course secondary to the goal of having some fun and building some relationships.

Wainuomata (left) and Paraparaumu (right) showing HVFP how it's done!

With a Second Alarm transmitted, members of HVFP leapt into action to assist Firefighters at a substantial fire in Maidstone - literally just down the road from Rimutaka fire station. The premises, an automotive workshop, was seriously damaged.

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The scene shortly after the arrival of the first Fire Police; the damage to the property is well obvious.

Hutt Valley Fire Police provided road closures and diversions on both sides of what is a fairly busy road, and also monitored a substantial number of onlookers. Refreshments were also served for the hard working Firefighters from the various appliances which attended, including Rimutaka, Trentham, Avalon and Wellington City paid staff, and volunteers from Upper Hutt and Silverstream VFB's, not to mention our Unit. More photos after the jump....

Once again HVFP were one of the key enablers for the Upper Hutt Santa Parade, held Saturday 5 December 2009. Our Unit takes care of the road closures along the parade route as part of our service to the community.

This year we were ably assisted by St Josephs Venturer Unit and as usual, we were part of a larger cast of volunteers who made the event a success.

A selection of images can be seen here, more (as supplied by Mark Foster and Bruce Key) can be found in Mark's Gallery.

Hutt Valley Fire Police were amongst the volunteers giving their time and resources to the Goodwill Express on 28 November 2009. This is a special TranzMetro service, with trains stopping at each station along the lines to Upper Hutt and Paraparaumu, picking up donations for the Salvation Army Foodbank.

Image courtesy Tranzmetro's Website

The Hutt Valley Fire Police would like to thank the following organisations for their support and sponsorship:

	Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club
	Upper Hutt Rotary

10x White-on-Blue Direction arrows 400mm
2x "Footpath Closed - Use Other Side" signs
4x Stop/Go signs
20x cone rods (red/white)

Some photos of our new signage, on display during the Upper Hutt Spring Festival, 5 September 2009

Upper Hutt Rural Fire's command unit (UPPE9480) on display at the Upper Hutt Spring Festival. The 'Cone Rods' can be seen in the foreground, and provide an excellent safety barrier.

The Unit is now in a position to provide a safer and more professional secure working environment for emergency rescue services personnel, and also the public. Again our grateful thanks.