Firefighters will be creating a waterfall of spray over five-storey Hayward College from a very long ladder on Thursday 19 December, as a training exercise.
The aerial appliance will be spraying the mist of water onto the north façade on Frederick Street to simulate rain, says Team Leader – Plumbing and Gas Jeff Burrow, who is also Waitati Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer.
His crew will not be spraying the water though, Dunedin Central Fire Station firefighters have the aerial appliance. However, Jeff’s volunteer fire chief role sparked the idea of offering the training opportunity to Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
Because tradespeople had to fix some rubber seals around aluminium windows at Hayward during a couple of heavy downpours this year, Group Manager Facilities Tony Taylor wanted to check they had got them all while the students were away on holiday, so he asked if Jeff could help.
While Jeff did not have anything on campus he could use, he did “know some guys that will have” – and the University would also be helping the Dunedin community.
“It’s not often firefighters get to spray water on a building unless there’s a fire, so it’s a win-win situation for both of us,” he says.
The aerial appliance and a pump truck will be parked in Frederick Street between 9am and 11.30am during the training exercise and traffic management measures will be in place. Pedestrians will be directed to the opposite side of the road.
Hayward College was developed from the former Queen Mary Maternity hospital in 1992 and has had several upgrades since, including the 2019 dining room and ground floor common space extensions and addition of more bedrooms so the college has 176.