The Dominion Post
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The first senior fire officer on the Canterbury Television building site has defended claims that he failed to establish command after the February 2011 earthquake, saying the book went “out the window”.
However, another officer has criticised the lack of an overall commander at the site.
Station officer (SO) Alan Butcher yesterday told a coroner’s inquest into eight of the 115 deaths at the site after the quake that he did not have the time or resources to “sit back” and take command or ask a higher-ranking officer to do so.
Mr Butcher’s Addington crew and one other crew, under Station Officer Stephen Warner, were the first on the scene.
The two SOs did not discuss taking charge of the site, Mr Butcher said. “The book goes out the window when you’re stuck like this; you are doing the best you can,” he said.
“There was no [time] at the time to be able to sit back and discuss. You’re in there working. The fire brigade was stretched. There’s no doubt about it.”
Counsel assisting the coroner Richard Raymond asked Mr Butcher why he did not follow the co-ordinated incident management system (CIMS) designed for emergency services to co-operate in major emergencies.
“CIMS or anything like that is not working at this stage because you do not have an overall site commander,” Mr Butcher said.
Mr Raymond asked whether CIMS was for “exactly that purpose - to identify an incident controller so that the site can be properly managed?”
“We were just stretched,” Mr Butcher said. “There is no spare person . . . to command the site.”
Mr Raymond asked whether Mr Butcher expected Fire Service assistant area manager Dave Burford, who visited the site in the afternoon, to assume command.
“Possibly, yes,” Mr Butcher said.
Mr Butcher said Mr Burford told him to concentrate on the fire and let others manage the rescues, and they never discussed command.
Mr Warner said he believed senior station officer Dave Berry, at CTV in his search and rescue capacity, was in command.
“Mr Berry didn’t say to me that he was taking charge. I just assumed that he was in charge because he was the senior officer.”
Under questioning from Nigel Hampton, QC, counsel for some victims’ families, Mr Warner said Mr Burford, who told
Mr Berry he was in charge, never relayed this to him.
Mr Butcher never even knew Mr Berry was on the CTV site.
Mr Warner said the site needed a co-ordinator.
However, both he and Mr Berry were too wrapped up in what they were doing to consider the issue.
Coroner Gordon Matenga thanked Mr Butcher and Mr Warner for their brave work at CTV.
“What we are trying to do here is look to see how things could be improved for the future,” he said. Fairfax NZ
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