Download PDF: Issue 9 - New Zealand Fire Service

Photo: Dean Treml
The fi refi ghters’ scientist
Dick Thornton-Grimes is “passionate”
about hazardous substances.
Which is just as well because in just
one month our new hazmat expert
found himself at sea and deep in the
Waikato country-side chasing all
sorts of weird dangerous stuff.
Dick has replaced Tony Haggerty as
the man to call when fi refi ghters are
confronted at incidents with
hazardous substances. These can and
do range from chemical fumigants to
radioactive material.
He says his job is to ensure fi refi ghters
and the public keep safe at such
incidents. He advises firefighters
about handling the incidents with a
view, also, to environmental
implications.
Though based in Auckland, Dick
travels anywhere and his gas detector
is as important as his mobile phone.
He is available to all Fire Service
personnel and is used to handling
calls from throughout the country.
“I am available at the end of a phone
to provide help and support.”
In April he was called out of his bed
in the wee small hours to go to the
Waikato because a truck suspected of
carrying radioactive material had
overturned. Attempts to get him on a
helicopter failed so he made the twoand-a-half-hour
trip by car.
As well as attending and advising at
incidents Dick also trains fi refi ghters
in working around hazardous
materials and provides training and
advice to industry, schools and the
public.
Dick has a professional background
in chemical safety and hails from the
UK. He is currently studying for a
graduate diploma in occupational
safety and health and chairs the
Appointment
hazardous substances technical
liaison committee.
And while confessing to being pleased
to be able to “indulge my passion for
hazardous substances” he likes to
reassure folk that he does not hang
out in a secret laboratory splitting
the atom or writing complicated
equations on the blackboard.
“I don’t have the time for that. I have
to be light on my feet to provide
essential information fi refi ghters need
quickly.”
Besides, the people who do split
atoms and peer into test tubes of
bubbling potions are not the sort best
suited to assist at incidents.
“They are very technical people.” In
his job Dick has to communicate
quick, precise, practical advice of
immediate use to fi refi ghters working
under pressure at incidents.
The New Zealand Fire Service Magazine May/June 2005
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