Lincoln Town Centre upgrades give local fire brigade rare opportunity to practice

Work on the Lincoln Town Centre is underway with construction progressing on the first carpark between Williams Street and Lyttelton Street.

Work has also begun to clear the properties at 11 and 11A Gerald Street for construction of the south carpark off Gerald Street beside Maurice Street.

This work has also helped Lincoln residents stay safer with Fire and Emergency New Zealand  and the Council agreeing that the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade can use the house at 11A Gerald Street for training.

The team used the building before it got demolished to practise a scenario where the crews had to force entry into the door and search the smoked-out house with zero visibility wearing a breathing apparatus to rescue two mannequins. They also returned the next day to practise forceful entry using their forceful entry tools.

Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade station officer and station training coordinator, Dylan Bryan says this training was an invaluable opportunity to provide realistic training and improve their skills.

“We’re never able to train like that because it’s so rare that these opportunities come up. Being a back section we didn’t have to worry about people coming on to the site and the house was in relatively good condition, so it was realistic as well.

What firefighters need to develop their skills is realistic fire training and being able to use this building was perfect. Everyone took some great learnings from it, and it will help the community in the future for future calls. A huge thanks to Isaacs, Selwyn District Council and ProTranz for making this happen.”

You can check out the video of their training on the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade Facebook page.

The Lincoln Town Centre upgrade aims to create a refreshed town centre, fit for the future of Lincoln with more public space, while promoting safety for traffic.

The upgrade will add new car parks, cycle lanes, road upgrades and public space in front of businesses to create a wide pedestrian plaza on the sunny side of Gerald Street.

Detailed design is progressing, and we will bring you a further update on this in the coming months.

The wastewater upgrades to the side streets have begun this week, with the initial sewer lateral pipes being inspected, followed by the relining of the existing sewer connections.

Most of the work will require minimal traffic management with traffic flow being maintained in both directions and a temporary speed limit of 30km/h in certain areas.

For all updates, please visit the Lincoln Town Centre upgrade webpage.