News Story
Members responded to 2 major fires in Auckland early today - at the same time. The first turned out to be a 2nd Alarm call to a suspicious fire in the East Coast Bays RSA building in Browns Bay. Neighbours reported explosions and flames, but the automatic fire alarm had already kicked in and firefighters were quickly on the scene. The clubrooms, escaping serious damage, were smoke-logged. And while firefighters were tackling that blaze their colleagues on the city side were called to a fire in Ellerslie involving a large building used to store and repair cars. This escalated to a third alarm. Some firefighters were put through decontamination processes after it was found they may have been exposed to asbestos. Our members were in an unusual situation about closing the no-exit road, the only access to and from the NZ Herald newspaper presses. After the initial fire-fight the road was opened to enable delivery of today's Herald on Sunday. Our brigade was assisted by Silverdale Operational Support Unit at both calls.
