Cromwell Operational Support

The Cromwell Volunteer Fire Brigade was established in 1874. During the Brigade's Centenary year, consideration was given to establishing a Fire Police unit and following all the necessary arrangements being attended to, the unit was established in February 1975. This was at a time when Cromwell was going through considerable change as work began on the Clyde Dam and investigations for hydro electric development of the Clutha Valley. The current 5 members have a mix of experience with former Fire fighters and operational support members- the unit has been the starting point for many of the Brigade's Fire fighters.
The unit, now called the Cromwell Operational Support unit attends the majority of the Brigade's callouts (100 + per year) providing traffic & site safety as well as scene lighting at the likes of vehicle crashes and fires. The Brigade's turnout area is very large with a population that is growing every day. Motor vehicle crashes form a large part of the Brigade's turnouts and the unit spends a lot of time at accident scenes in the Kawarau Gorge/Wanaka Road section of SH6 as well as the Cromwell Gorge/Lindis Pass section of SH8. A fully equipped response vehicle is provided to support the Brigade's pair of Iveco Appliances - 421 & 427.