Mangaia Firefighters workshop
Last year in April, Cook Islands Fire and Safety’s Fraser Smith applied for funding through NHRD to come to Mangaia and deliver basic Fire, Health and Safety training in the workplace and home to our people. It was good timing because we’d just come through a period of dry spell seeing several forest and bushfires over the past two years. So we used that workshop to develop a long term program to further equip our people with dealing with fires in future. Mangaia Island Administration (MIA) has a small capital item budget appropriated each year for various small assets and we used this financial year’s allocation to purchase a fire trailer designed by Fraser to cater for our needs based on the assessment he did while on island in April.
MIA also applied for funding to NHRD this year to carry out part 2 of fire and safety training but concentrating more on the use of the fire trailer and its components. MIA decided to formally appoint an emergency taskforce and elect selected members from the community and Government workforce to commit to this initiative. MIA asked Mrs Inangaro Papatua to come up with a suited Mangaian name for the taskforce, and she came up with ‘Te Puna Kira Kira’ (representing the community who stands watch). NHRD approved this and the original workshop was planned for May and was deferred twice as the unit hadn’t made it to island by the proposed dates. We finally received this unit on the last sail of Taio Shipping earlier this month. Fraser flew in on the 15 June, held the training on the 18-19 June and left us on the 20th. We went through various components of fire fighting: handling and using particular fire extinguishers, running the fire hoses, using the water pumps etc then we went to the harbor and practiced pumping water from the sea and the fresh water spring and testing hose lines and pressure etc. We also did a house fire drill where we set mock fires in the derelict Government buildings up at Aremauku and the team were tested as though it were a real emergency and timed. It took 10 minutes to arrive to the scene and 23 minutes in total to attend/put out the fire/and pack up for departure. Fraser was proud of the team, we all were. Then we headed back to the workshop and learnt how to clean and maintain our equipment ready for future use.
There were 16 people invited to membership but only 11 turned up on the day of training and so we added the two ex-officios who were there (GR Ngai Areai and Ivirua Councillor Pa Epi Mana) making the dedicated Te Puna Kira Kira numbers to 13. Participants were chosen representing the 6 various districts of Mangaia, with a mixture of mature, youth and female. Some were based on sober habits, expertise (ex-forestry for fire fighting or machine operators, electrical, mechanical etc), standing in the community (Police) and personality.
Te Puna Kira Kira is aimed at dealing with any emergency situation on our island and the strategy is to develop the team over time to build up capacity. The elected Fire Chief is Nooroa Samuel Jnr and his assistant is Taokia Taokia. The goals for next training steps are: first aid, cyclone activity (preparedness/management/recovery etc), search & rescue in the hills, marine rescue or emergency and eventually aviation. NHRD approved funding of basic safety gear which saw the issue of a safety helmet & clip, and a branded Te Puna Kira Kira vest to each participant, and MIA added in a set of gloves each. The group aim to apply for funds, sponsorship and carry out fundraisers to build up their resources which are: safety boots, overalls, raingear, gumboots, pick axes, beepers, handheld radios, a radio, safety beacons, headlight torches, more firefighting equipment, lockers, rope etc. The aim for now is to activate the team every two months to do practice fire drills while assisting the community (farmers) in carting water inland to the fields and practicing using the equipment in doing so. -By Helen Henry, Island Secretary

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