Aaron Waterreus, following his recent graduation from Massey University.
A new study shows the Fire Service has made major gains in improving incident control and fire fighter safety following the Canterbury earthquakes.
The findings are part of a study by Aaron Waterreus, Fire Service Area Manager for the Eastern Waikato, who has just completed a Master of Emergency Management degree with Massey University.
Mr Waterreus, of Ngāi Tahu descent, evaluated the Incident Management Project set up to improve command and control protocols and procedures. “We’d had several incidents where firefighters had come close to losing their lives and through the operational reviews, a lack of good incident management was often highlighted. So the organisation got pretty serious about trying to fix that.”
Ten years ago the Fire Service set up an Executive Officer development programme and as part of it, Mr Waterreus studied for the Graduate Diploma in Emergency Management at Massey University. Even though he left the Fire Service in the following years to work in the Middle East, he continued his studies with Massey completing the Post Graduate Diploma in Emergency Management while overseas. It was there that he realised the importance of formal qualifications. “Having that graduate diploma certainly opened doors for me and I managed to get quite a good job because of it.”
When he returned to New Zealand he re-joined the Fire Service and continued his studies, moving on to the Master of Emergency Management. This threw up an opportunity to combine theory with practical application. “The organisation hadn’t yet evaluated the effectiveness of the Incident Management Project and I thought, here is a good opportunity to do something for my masters but create something meaningful for the organisation as well. So it was a win-win situation.”
Mr Waterreus says his evaluation shows the Project has had a huge impact. “It was quite incredible to look at the data and to see the difference. Since the Incident Management Project better incident management tools have been developed and utilised, tighter procedures developed around firefighting operations and there has been an increased emphasis on command and control from senior officers. This has resulted in a significant reduction in firefighter injuries and no further firefighters have been admitted to hospital with burns due to being caught in undesirable situations such as flashovers or backdrafts.” He says commanders and officers are visible out on the incident ground ensuring that policies and procedures are being followed and safety measures are being enforced.
Since the Project finished, Mr Waterreus says the ideals it promoted have become business as usual and there is now an ongoing tactical command programme which each Officer attends every three years. He says there has been a massive increase in awareness of incident ground safety and the new tools developed for incident management and safety are being widely used. “We’ve improved procedures around wearing and monitoring breathing apparatus on the incident ground and being able to account for our people.”
The Fire Service is about to undergo massive change with the birth of Fire and Emergency New Zealand on the 1st of July which will amalgamate 40 different agencies into one.
Mr Waterreus says it is an exciting time to be part of the new organisation and he believes having formal qualifications in emergency management and around 25 years of experience in the field, will equip him well for the changes ahead.