Saturday 12 June saw the Hutt Valley Fire Police Unit host Fire Police and Operational Support staff from Featherston, Greytown, Wainuiomata and Wellington's various Fire Police and Operational Support Units at the Messines Army Centre, Trentham, for a day of training particularly focussed on the skills and knowledge required by support personnel.

The full day of training covered a variety of areas including:

• Fire Legislation
  
• The Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS)
  
• Salvage
  
• Knots
  
• Traffic Control
  
• Scene Protection
  
• Fire Safety & Promotional Resources
  
• Safe Person Concept
  
• Land Mobile Radio and Incident Ground Communications
  
• Lighting
  
• Proceeding to Incidents
  
• Health & Safety
  

Photos and more after the jump....

Expertise was called upon from across the district, with Trainers including SSO Brian Arons from Wellington Fire Support (Salvage), Assistant Area Manager Des Irving (as area Safety lead for the area), and members of the NZ Police were available to cover Traffic Control and Scene Protection matters. HVFP trainers included SSO David Ackroyd (Lighting), FP Wayne Bedford (Legislation) and FP Mark Foster (Communications).

Among the visitors on the day was one of the newly supplied HAZMAT-Command Units. Wellington 2118 has been used at anger at several calls but is not yet fully commissioned, as crews are brought fully up to speed with what is a whole new era of mobile Command-and-Control capability.

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Support Unit Vehicles parked up at Messines: Kilbirnie 2426; One of the Wellington Area Kitchen Fire Demonstrators; Wainuiomata 4426.

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Rimutaka 4926 and 4928 on display; Wellington 2118 is given the once-over; its multimedia fitout is excellent, allowing officers both within and outside the appliance to see what's going on at the touch of a button.

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Officers from Wellington City station demonstrated many aspects of the new combination HAZMAT-Command vehicles functions, showing the touch-sensitive display and the capabilities of the tower-mounted video camera and satellite based internet connection. It's very obvious once you look them over, that a lot of thought has been put into their configuration.

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Fire Safety and Promotions staff demonstrated the districts two major demonstrator capabilities; the kitchen fire demonstrator and the inflatable house which is used to educate young people about 'get down, get low, get out!'. And, of course, we had to try it out! :-)

Senior Station Officer David Ackroyd, Officer in Charge of the Hutt Valley Fire Police, noted: "The value of the combined training is the interaction between the different Units and the sharing of skills and information. This includes their own experiences both in training and at calls, which when shared allow all of us to benefit from the cumulative wealth of knowledge. Training together also improves interoperability which has immediate, tangible benefits. This was the first time we're aware of that we've had joint training in the Wellington area, and the improved camaraderie alone amongst those who attended is noticable and positive."

Ironically, it was less than 24 hours later that Hutt Valley Fire Police were called to provide Salvage in the Wainuiomata District, working closely with the Wainuiomata Fire Police at a burst water pipe in an upstairs dwelling above a bakery. The benefits of joint training were immediately apparent to those who attended; 6 members and Rimutaka 4928 provided support with Aquavacs, removing water from both levels.