Omarama Operational Support

The Omarama Volunteer Fire Brigade is in a strategically important location, at the top of the Waitaki Valley in North Otago. The area covers two major State Highways, SH8 & SH83, which includes the main route from Christchurch to Queenstown and the notorious Lindis Pass. MVAs make up a large number of the calls the brigade attends and the Operational Support crew often have to manage accident scenes, with Police and roading contractors sometimes hours away.
The Brigade was also the first in the country to take part in the Enhanced First Response trial with St John. This sees some members trained up to Medical First Responder level and, with the closest ambulance anywhere from 25 minutes – 2 hours away, medical calls make up roughly half the annual total for the Brigade. As part of the agreement with St John, a crew is turned out to all medical events in the town, from the less serious, coded Green, to life threatening Purple calls.
Formally two separate Urban & Rural units, the combined FENZ Omarama has a PRT (567), Medical First Response ute (5633), Medium Rural appliance (5671), Water Tanker (5611) and support ute (5626). Op Support members are often drivers for all the vehicles and the Medium Rural (5671) is equipped with a traffic kit, to be turned out with Op Support for crashes that require road management.
Omarama Operational Support play a key role in the brigade, which is always on the lookout for more members to join the family.