The Wellington Emergency Response Team are dedicated, trained volunteers who help our communities prepare for, and get through emergencies. We meet weekly for training sessions and are ready for deployment in the event of a disaster. We primarily look after the Wellington region but can be deployed to other regions. With severe weather events becoming more frequent, we are being called to respond to events throughout the country.
May 5th with FENZ USAR in Wellington city
As some of the Wellington City Council buildings were being demolished, our teams jumped at the opportunity to conduct local training in the Capital.
We scaled the walls, climbing all over the building and practised many of our skills needed in a genuine emergency response scenario, including using dogs to search for trapped people.
Exercises like this provide a great opportunity for our team to strengthen their relationships and share knowledge and skills with other volunteers from the four Wellington and Hutt based New Zealand Response Teams.
Thank you FENZ USAR for the invite for us to train with you. This was great experience for our crew to learn and strengthen our relationship. We are looking forward to training with you again in the near future.
Do you have a disused building we could use for training? Please…
April 4th with NZRT7, Tawa & Wellington Volunteer Fire Brigades
We met at Waitangi Park, Te Aro (Central Wellington), to train with our friends from NZRT7 (Victoria Rescue). There were two missions – a relay pumping exercise, and a traffic control exercise.
We established water from a hydrant to fill a dam; pumped from this to another dam using Vic Rescue’s portable pump; and from that to yet another dam using a WOSU submersible pump. We extracted water from that to street drainage on the other side of the park. With particular focus on keeping the grass dry, and we were successful!
Really great to be able to train together, learn from each other and continue to build our working relationship. Big thanks to the crew from Wellington and Tawa Volunteer Fire Brigades who ran the traffic control station, and to our Station Training Coordinators and their team for yet another interesting training scenario with many challenges.
Life Flight Open Day March 23rd, Rongotai
This annual event is an opportunity to show case our work and interact with the public.
We have a static display plus some hands-on activities which the children always enjoy.
It was a full programme on the day and included events and displays by Life Flight Air Ambulance, Westpac chopper, Customs Detector dogs, Wellington FENZ, the RNZAF marching band and more.
Operation Caribbean February 3rd, 2025
Operational Support personnel from across Wellington took part in a joint training exercise
There were 2 scenarios; a natural environment fire where Operational Support crews supported specialist natural environment firefighters by providing traffic control, water supply, and first aid when required. Logistical & access issues were an added challenge.
The second scenario was a motor vehicle accident, we assisted Police with traffic management, scene protection, cordons, logistical support, and more.
A special thank you to Wellington FENZ Brown watch crew of the Wellington City Command Unit for their support to help ensure the safety of all exercise participants.
World Volunteer Day 5th December 2024
The whole team at NZRT8 are volunteers.
We are everyday people from all walks of life who give our time to train and be prepared to respond in the event of a disaster in our region.
We all have day jobs and families, but we make ourselves available for training every Monday evening plus we have specialised exercises on a few weekends through the year.
We want to give a shout out to all our dedicated NZRT volunteers around New Zealand, and all our partner agencies that volunteer to help communities in disasters – thanks for all your dedicated work.
If you would like to join the team, click the link below.
Operation Poseidon Oct 4th – 6th, Trentham
What a weekend! Our incredible Wellington team joined Exercise Poseidon from Friday afternoon through to midday Sunday, working tirelessly to sharpen our earthquake and flood response capabilities.
Alongside over 140 volunteers from across the North Island, our team faced both a 36-hour planned exercise and a real M5.7 earthquake.
It was a great reminder of the importance of being prepared and the critical role of Response Teams.
We worked alongside our other NZRT teams across the North Island along with other agencies such as FENZ USAR, NZDF, SPCA, NEMA and more.
Sept 21st & 22nd with NZRT7 in Wellington
Great training session with Victoria Rescue Team (NZRT7) at the weekend, as we prepare for the big North Island exercise (4th – 6th October).
Joint session with Wellington Emergency Response Team (NZRT8) this Saturday. Great work from both teams!
Life Flight visit, August 12th
For last night’s session our crew went into Wellington to be taken through the Westpac Life Flight helicopter and fixed wing plane.
This is really worth while for our members to have a good look around, learn about working safely around an aircraft and ask questions on how we can be of assistance at an accident.
A huge thanks to Life Flight Wellington for making this possible, and for all of your life-saving actions every day.
Rescue in the Rubble, Hutt Valley, July 22nd
The team met in the rain at the Whakatikei rocks, near the Hutt River. We practiced the line and hail search technique, methodically covering the rocks and crevices metre by metre.
We located a casualty (one of the team members) and extracted him quickly.
Water rescue practice, Hutt River with NZRT7
Saturday 6th July – some of our team joined with NZRT7 and ventured into the Hutt River, to practice our swift water rescue skills, necessary for assisting in flood conditions.
Sunday 7th – NZRT7 the rescue team from Victoria, Wellington, plus a few of our team, set up a trash pump to quickly move water containing debris. Another necessary skill to assist in a natural disaster.
To see more about our recent training exercises; follow us on Facebook.
More ladder practice, Tawa, July 1st 2024
A good turnout of team members met at our Tawa base for some more ladder hinge practice.
This time we worked indoors (and avoided the horrible weather outside).
Using the ladder hinge, we rescued our casualty (mannequin ‘Manuel’) from the upper floor and brought him safely down to the ground floor.
Ladder hinge and slide exercise, Tawa
Monday 24th June at our depot in Tawa.
We dusted off the ladders and set them out ready to practice our ladder rescue techniques.
Essential skills to have especially when getting causalities out of those hard-to-reach spaces.
Exercise Whakarauora Tangata at Paraparaumu
Saturday June 8th – NZ Police, Wellington Free Ambulance, FENZ, Coast Guard NZ, Surf Life Saving, Land SAR and NZRT8 came together for Exercise Whakarauora Tangata.
The scenario: – a cruise ship with 256 people on board, was on fire, just north of Kapiti Island. 30 live role players and 5 deceased (mannequins). 3 life rafts had been spotted, 2 nearing Paraparaumu Beach and one near Kapiti Island.
The aim of the exercise was to rehearse the real time skills, procedures and processes for the district level Incident Management Team (IMT) and test the efficacy of existing or new plans. To rehearse a coordinated command, control and communication structure across the teams to ensure the passengers and crew were safely evacuated and treated promptly.
We simulated passengers being evacuated by helicopter and life raft. Passengers already in the water were collected by the Coast Guard and Surf Life savers in IRBs.
Casualties were triaged at Kapiti Boat Club, treated and transported to Hospital as required.
The event concluded just before mid-day and the teams and casualties enjoyed a debrief over a BBQ lunch.
No photos available.
Rescue Mission in a Nature Reserve
May 20th and the scenario for the evening was a magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Wellington. The task assigned to the team was to rescue casualties from a locked building in a remote bush setting.
Accessed was gained to the upper floor using the fire escape.
Casualties were located, first aid given, and then they were brought out to safety.
It was a good opportunity to use the skills we had practiced earlier this year.
Interested in joining the team? Click the button below.
Storm response training, Wellington
May 6th we met at the site of 2 neighbouring empty houses in Wilton. We practiced safely accessing a roof, which was made difficult by overhanging trees.
Using ropes and harnesses, team members ascended the ladders and climbed onto the roof.
Carefully moving around on the roof, keeping 3 points of contact at all times, we secured loose corrugated iron with ropes and placed a tarpaulin over the roof to keep the house watertight.
We used our mannequin “Manuel” as a patient and brought him safely down off the roof.
Ladders and Lowers in Wellington
April 29th we were back at the empty flats in Berhampore for some more hands-on training.
Tom and Phil instructed us on the safe use of ladders and techniques for lowering team members, stretchers and equipment.
The building is in a state or disrepair, so the scenario was fairly realistic.
To see more about our recent training exercises; follow us on Facebook.
Demolition training in Wellington
Monday April 15th, we met at a disused block of flats in Berhampore to learn the art of demolition (with the owner’s permission of course).
Demolition is a necessary skill we would need in the event of deployment to a building that we need to enter but the usual entry points are blocked.
We learnt how to safely assess the situation before cutting into walls to create an opening big enough to evacuate someone through.
We got to have a play with all our demolition equipment, and still left most of the building intact.
Joint training exercise with FENZ and NZRT7
Our team (NZRT8) met with NZRT7 from Victoria University and Wellington Operational Support at Kilbirnie fire station on Monday 8th April.
Mixed crews worked together across four areas set up on the night, in order to build awareness of each group’s capabilities. Three of the bases focused on technical skills: using ladders and cordons, setting up lighting and a casualty collection point.
The fourth base provided a place for crews to rest, socialise, and familiarise themselves with the vehicles.
We closed with a debriefing and an agreement to do another joint training exercise.
Flood management exercise in Tawa
We started the evening of 25th March 2024 at our Tawa depot, learning how to fill sandbags. We practised using both sandbags and tarpaulins for building a watertight wall. We then headed to Willow Park Reserve where we used the Porirua stream for our exercise.
Under the beam of floodlights and headlamps. We broke into 2 groups.
The first group set up a trash pump which quickly moves large volumes of water which may contain small bits of debris/trash. We also practised using a submersible pump and generator.
The 2nd group practiced safely crossing deep murky water using stakes to probe for hazards, walking in formation, arms linked for maximum safety.
To keep up to date with our latest training exercises and deployments; follow us on Facebook.
Practising patient hand-over exercise
March 4th, the team met to practice patient hand-over. Two of our team, who are Wellington Free Ambulance staff (in green and blue) were there with an ambulance to receive our ‘patients’.
Volunteers from our team were the patients for the evening.
The team practiced giving a verbal hand-over, which needs to be accurate, concise and up to date, including any treatment or medicine given. Changes in the patient’s condition observed since arrival on scene, were also given to the ambulance staff, plus a written note of vital signs (heart rate, respiration rate and pain level) which had been recorded periodically since first assessment.
We also practiced how to safely transfer the patient into the ambulance.
Life Flight open day March 2024
Sunday the 10th saw the team in Kilbirnie, Wellington, to participate in the Life Flight open day.
All the emergency services were represented. The youngsters enjoyed climbing the ladder. Safety first – Richard fastens the helmet on a keen participant.
Hauling the stretcher up on ropes was a popular activity too.
Open days like this are a great opportunity to meet the public and show them who we are and what we do. NZRT8 are being deployed more often now as global warming brings storms flooding and gale force winds more frequently.
Is this something you want to be a part of? Click the button below to apply.
