Hutt Valley Fire Police were paged very early on 3 March to provide AquaVac's for a Salvage task at a bakery in Taita. An ajoining ATM had caught fire and water had subsequently found its way - in some volume - into the floor of the Bakery.
Members of the Unit made short work of the water.

Photos by FP Key:

.

No doubt most New Zealanders are aware of the Tsunami Alert that we were under for much of Sunday 28 February after the major Major Earthquake off the coast of Chile.

A mishap involving a sprinkler head within a storage facility at Trentham Army Camp had the Hutt Valley Fire Police requested to respond with Aquavacs and salvage equipment. RIMU4926 and 4928 turned out and spent about 90 minutes at work with Acquavacs and Squeegies, assisting firefighters from Rimutaka, Silverstream and Trentham stations.

Hutt Valley Fire Police were amongst the resources from all across the region who were called to assist at a massive Scrub Fire in Titahi Bay, Porirua. Stuff.co.nz has impressive photography.

Our friends at Wellington Fire Support were responded to the call when a Third Alarm was transmitted. A long duration incident, HVFP and also Wainuiomata's Fire Police provided relief manpower for Wellington Fire Support and assisted with traffic management.

A very windy Saturday 13 February saw the Hutt Valley Fire Police requested to provide scene protection for a power pole collapse in Ebdentown, Upper Hutt.

The Unit provided traffic control and scene protection until the Power Company and a commercial traffic management firm could provide relief; time on scene was around 2 hours.

Members observed that the adjacent house was very lucky!!

.

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.

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.

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.

.
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....