The Lake Taupō harbourmaster has clarified its role in rescues with Fire and Emergency after FENZ struggled to get hold of them when a boy was rescued just before Christmas.
The harbourmaster helped search for a 14-year-old who had jumped off a burning boat he had been left in charge of.
The message-log showed FENZ from the start telling police that “maritime would be lead, harbour master would be first”.
But “attempting to contact Lake Taupō harbourmaster, no success,” Fire and Emergency told police eight minutes after they got the first alert from Kinloch at 6.38pm on December 21.
They ended up calling three different numbers after the first two went to voicemail.
It took them a quarter of an hour to get through, to be told by a harbourmaster who was not on-call that the on-call harbourmaster would have been alerted by a pager.
A habourmaster spokesperson said they began responding quickly.
Richard Ward, from Internal Affairs, who oversees the lake’s harbourmaster, said the harbour master began responding within five minutes of the first call being made to Fire and Emergency.
At a later debrief they “re-clarified” the procedures for all lake emergencies.
“The Taupō harbourmaster is not a first responder and does not lead emergency responses relating to fire, medical emergencies, or search and rescue,” Ward said.
The call-log showed at 6.56pm Fire and Emergency was “attempting a 3rd number” for the harbourmaster and two minutes later got through.
Additionally, just after 7pm the police “spoke to Taupō Harbourmaster to make him aware of the event”, the message-log said.
Around this same time, police stood down a rescue helicopter. They reactivated it 20 minutes later and it went on to spot the boy.
Ward said the harbourmaster did not have formal Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) in place with either Fire and Emergency or police.
“However, there are established working relationships and shared understandings with local first responder agencies.
“The harbourmaster remains available to provide assistance where appropriate and when requested by lead agencies,” he said in a statement.
The Auckland harbourmaster said they also did not have MOUs with Fire and Emergency or police either, but had “great relationships” with both.
The lake harbourmaster’s statutory responsibilities focus on maintaining navigational safety and managing maritime risks, including responding to regional marine oil and fuel spills, and coordinating maritime safety following sinkings, groundings or collisions that posed a risk to other water users.
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