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....

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Refreshments care of the HVFP; The workshop contained all sorts of automotive oils and fuels as well as complete shells, now written off...

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A goodly number of NZFS appliances attended (Spot RIMU4926), along with our friends from both the NZ Police and Wellington Free Ambulance (spot RIMU4928 assisting with an inner cordon).

In particular it was noted that the NZ Police were very quick to respond to the urgent need for road closures, as traffic chaos began to ensue very quickly. HVFP were able to assist (and eventually replace) NZ Police road closures in order to free them up for other tasks, but we do recognise that their ability to respond early, and under urgency, was of great assistance. Our thanks to them.

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A vehicle that was presumably moved quickly out of the way became part of our crowd control equipment; SFP Biddle and FP Foster can be seen keeping an eye on things.

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FP Roberts manning an outer roadblock; NZ Police vehicle parked at what had been the initial, inner cordon.

Additional imagery by Mark Foster and Bruce Key can be found in Mark's Gallery with copyrights asserted.