DECADE ON FROM NZ EARTHQUAKE
JUST 12 hours after Christchurch’s deadly earthquake that killed 185 people, Southport Fire Station’s station officer Marcus Barrett arrived in New Zealand for what would be a gruelling 11-day posting.
“Our first gig was straight into the CTV (Christchurch Television) building, which was roughly a seven-storey office block. It was a full pancake collapse,” says Mr Barrett, a Gold Coast firefighter of 32 years.
“All that was left was a lift shaft and a lot of rubble and it was on fire when we got there.”
At 12.51pm on February 22, 2011, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the city and caused the CTV building to crumble to the ground, claiming the lives of 115 Kiwis as they went about their daily grind.
This was the devastating scene that awaited Mr Barrett and 74 of his fellow Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team members from the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service.
“We were using large earthmoving equipment, cutting away large reinforcing steel so we could tear away large pieces of concrete and clear away rubble to see what we could find,” he says.
“Certainly for the first few days we were mindful that we were trying to achieve rescues where we could, but it pretty soon became evident, especially on the CTV site, that it was just going to be body retrieval. And that’s what it turned out to be.
“We retrieved 36 bodies just ourselves.
“Ideally, it would have been great to save some lives, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. In reality the NZ USAR teams and fire services did a fantastic job in those first 12 hours and saved most of the savable lives.
“Seven days at the CTV site was long enough.”
In the lead-up to attending New Zealand’s fifth-deadliest disaster, Mr Barrett had been part of crews that attended the series of floods that smashed Queensland from November 2010 to January 2011. This included the Bundaberg floods, the deadly “inland tsunami” at Toowoomba and Tropical
Cyclone Yasi that hammered Innisfail on January 26.
“After Innisfail it was only a few weeks later and I was in Christchurch.
“We arrived through the normal airport and had quite an amazing experience, and it was something that touched me – as we came through, we were in uniform, the New Zealand people were standing up and clapping us. It was a little bit emotional.
“Another lady who worked at the airport jumped on the bus to say thanks and she appreciated us and then said her house was ‘munted’. At the time I had never heard that expression before, but one of our firefighters, who is a New Zealander, gave us a translation.”
Upon arrival in the city they were split into two groups, with crews working 12-hour shifts and staying at a nearby park with other rescue workers from across the globe including California in the US, Japan and the UK.
Completely self-sufficient, the days were long and exhausting, but it didn’t stop the firefighters from banding together to help their mates from across the ditch.
“I’d never felt an earthquake before and they’re about as bad as it gets, I think,” Mr Barrett remembers.
“In a house fire you might lose one or two houses, but to have city blocks where everything is destroyed or one building is left standing and everything around it is destroyed …
“After the first few aftershocks you got used to them. But for us sleeping in tents on air mattresses, you could feel the ground move underneath; they were really strange.”
OUR FIRST GIG WAS STRAIGHT INTO THE CTV (CHRISTCHURCH TELEVISION) BUILDING, WHICH WAS ROUGHLY A SEVEN-STOREY OFFICE BLOCK. IT WAS A FULL PANCAKE COLLAPSE
SOUTHPORT FIRE STATION’S STATION OFFICER MARCUS BARRETT