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Lunchtime Seminar - 6 March 2012
The New Zealand Institute of Safety Management hosts Greg Cain, a partner and an experienced employment and health and safety lawyer at Kensington Swan.
Greg will be speaking on H&S obligations relating to earthquake-prone buildings at a lunchtime seminar on Tuesday 6th March 2012, 12.30 pm at the Ministry of Justice, The Vogel Centre, 19 Aitken Street - Wellington.
Fire Extinguishers in Buildings
Several times this year we have fielded calls from clients relating to the removal of fire extinguishers from buildings.
GeoNet - Earthquake information
The GeoNet project involves monitoring and analysing hazards earthquakes, volcanic activity, large landslides, tsunami in New Zealand. Information can be viewed at their website http://www.geonet.org.nz/.
NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair
We are pleased to continue our association with the NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair as judges and sponsors at the 2011competition recently held in Wellington.
The high standard of the exhibits and the commitment of the students and all those involved in the Science and Technology Fair was inspiring.
Our congratulations to Levi McElwain from Kelburn Normal School with his exhibit "The Triangle of Life or Death" and to Meg Finlayson from St Oran's College with her exhibit "Earthquake" who were the recipients of the Devereux-Blum special prizes.
Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre Visit
Sharyn and I recently visited the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii. The PTWC provides warnings of tsunamis to almost every country around the Pacific Rim including New Zealand. This function is carried out under the auspices of the UNESCO/IOC International Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning System.
Dr Bill Robinson
Sadly, this month we learnt of the passing of Dr Bill Robinson, who developed innovative earthquake protection technology for buildings which is used in New Zealand and overseas. Read more about Dr Bill Robinson's achievements.
Reflections on Christchurch 2011
Moving around the Christchurch CBD following the February earthquake was a sobering experience. Having spent some of my childhood living in Kilmore Street and being no stranger to the shaking's and rumbles that occur from time to time around New Zealand, it was hard to believe the level of destruction left in the wake of this devastating quake. Working in the emergency services and emergency preparedness business for the time that I had, it was evident that this would be a long and painful recovery process for many. Even those who considered themselves well prepared would find this a challenge of enormous proportions.
Devastating Christchurch Earthquake
A damaging earthquake close to the CBD in Christchurch has caused widespread damage with the current loss of life at around 65. Rescue Teams will work throughout the night to free the trapped. To see streamed news go to TVNZ
Rugby World Cup CIMS training
Prepare your staff to deal with possible incidents that might surround the Rugby World Cup. We are taking bookings for our RWC CIMS courses now.
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or telephone us on 0800 532 008.
Published Articles
This month we achieved another first - two published articles in the same magazine!
7.1 Earthquake, Zero deaths
Paul took two days out from training in September to visit the Canterbury area and travelled around to observe first hand the impact of the 7.1 earthquake which struck the region in the early hours of 4th September 2010.
Cascading Consequences of Infrastructure Failures in Disasters
As part of our commitment to you to ensure we deliver quality services based on current research and best practice, Sharyn attended the 4th Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference. There were many interesting sessions and Sharyn has summarised some of the key points for our readers.
7.1 Earthquake strikes Christchurch
A 7.1 Magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch. Follow information updates through the MCDEM website.
Christchurch City Council Civil Defence has declared a state of local emergency.
Selwyn District Council has declared a state of local emergency.
For more information about the quake visit the Geonet site.
'Triangle of Life' advice resurfaces (again)
Many of our course attendees ask us what we think about the triangle of life earthquake advice circulating in cyberspace, originally generated by Doug Copp, a self-professed emergency management expert. The triangle of life theory usually resurfaces following a major earthquake such as Haiti, or most recently Chile.
Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP)
Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP) are in wide use in the UK and most of Europe, especially since the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) made it mandatory for building owners, employers and other accountable bodies responsible to ensure the safe and complete evacuation of everyone (including disabled people). They are no longer permitted to rely on any incoming party such as the Fire Service.
New Electrical Standard
On the 1st of April 2010 the Electricity Regulations 1997 were replaced by the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010.
New Zealand Sign Language Civil Defence DVD
The Ministry of Civil Defence, in conjunction with Deaf Aotearoa, has launched a new sign language DVD that provides the key CDEM messages in both sign language and captions for the Deaf and hearing impaired community.
2010 NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair
Devereux-Blum Training & Development Ltd are proud to be associated with the 2010 NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair, offering special prizes for the best senior and junior projects relating to emergency management (e.g community emergency preparedness, natural hazards etc).
The winners were Michael Fell of Samuel Marsden School for his project on Earthquake Preparedness and Louise Brett of Evans Bay Intermediate for her exhibit Salt Water Desalination. Our congratulations to both for their excellent work.
Visitor / Emergency Management Solution
Could you quickly identify who was in your building if it collapsed following an earthquake or a fire evacuation? Do you need to be able to quickly locate people on your sites or in your workplaces?
We are pleased to offer a modern effective, solution to clients who need to know who is on site and account for staff, contractors and visiting public in the event of an emergency. This is the best solution we have come across in over thirteen years!
The Visitor / Emergency Management solution is web-based and secure. The application is provided as a Software-as-a-Service solution. All the user needs is a web browser. (IE 6, 7, 8, Firefox).
Emergency Text Alerts from WEMO
Be the first to hear about Wellington emergencies, e.g tsunami warnings. Sign up to receive Emergency Text Alerts from WEMO (Wellington Emergency Management Office, the "Civil Defence" people).
Our Services
We felt it worthwhile, as you begin planning for the coming year, to remind you of the services we provide. A key benefit to working with us is that we take the time to tailor our training courses and other services to your organisation and your people. We are proud to be a provider of solutions, so we take care to pay attention to the details.
Readiness in Action
Recent events around the world continue to remind us of the threats and opportunities available to organisations in New Zealand and overseas. Communication is an area that requires a lot of readiness work prior to an event so it was interesting to hear about the steep learning curve BP's media team went through with Twitter and the importance of keeping an eye on social media during a response.
When the Siren Goes
"It does us a power of good to remind ourselves that we live on two volcanic rocks where two tectonic plates meet, in a somewhat lonely stretch of windswept ocean just above the Roaring Forties. If you want drama - you've come to the right place"
Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer
When the Siren Goes is a six-part audio documentaryseries hosted from the Radio New Zealand Sound Archives exploring a range of themes about disaster awareness through an examination of the different natural disasters which have occurred in New Zealand's history: earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, snowstorms, and floods.
Our NZQA External Evaluation & Review
Our NZQA external evaluation & review report is now online on the NZQA website. We are really proud of the result and appreciate the fantastic support and feedback received from you, our clients. The evaluation was very thorough, taking several days.
Secondary Schools Learning Civil Defence
Hutt Valley Schools have leapt at the opportunity of working with Hutt Valley Emergency Management Team and Devereux-Blum Training & Development Ltd to ensure their schools have trained teams on the ground in a Civil Defence Emergency.
Follow us on Twitter for regular updates on many aspects of emergency management. Our RSS Feed allows you to get the latest news and updates from our website.
Tsunami Alert
Chile Quake 8.8 - National Warning: Tsunami Threat.
To see the official Ministry of Civil Defence website click here
Major Earthquakes of 2009
On 15 July 2009 the largest earthquake to occur in New Zealand since the 1931 Napier earthquake struck remote Dusky Sound in the Fiordland region. With a magnitude of 7.8, the rupturing caused by the earthquake started at a depth of about 30 km and moved upwards and to the south,
MCDEM internal & external reviews on Tsunami response
Civil Defence Minister John Carter has released the reports of the internal and external reviews into the Ministry of Civil Defence’s response to the 30 September 2009 tsunami alert.
Follow the links to the two reports:
External Review of Tsunami Response (pdf)
Multi Agency CIMS
Our latest multi-agency CIMS (Co-Ordinated Incident Management System) course brought together people from a range of different organisations.
Tsunami hits Germany before New Zealand
International journalism student SABRINA DANKEL got a mysterious text message early today. She explains:
Supporting Our Leaders of Tomorrow.
Sharyn was a judge at the recent Science and Technology Fair held at Victoria University in Wellington
Wairarapa Train Derailed
About 300 Wellington rail commuters were taken home by bus after their train derailed on Thursday evening (23rd July 2009) and services were suspended.
The Wairarapa-bound train was derailed by a slip as it came out of a tunnel at Maymorn, 40km north of Wellington, about 6.17pm.
The locomotive and first carriage came off the tracks, but no one was injured.
Passengers were transferred to the rear three carriages and taken back to Upper Hutt where buses met them to complete the rest of their trip.
Training WCC Civil Defence Centre Volunteers
We recently ran a CIMS training session for the Civil Defence Centre Managers within the Wellington City Area. In a major disaster or emergency Civil Defence Centres are activated by these volunteers. The centres are situated in primary schools or other community locations like community centres.
The centres collect information about the impact of an emergency and inform the Wellington Emergency Management Office. There is very little equipment at Civil Defence Centres, so residents should plan to be self-sufficient.
Pandemic Planning
Paul attended a 5-day Health Planning Course for Civil Emergencies directed at Health professionals to develop strategies and plans for dealing with the impact to public health. Paul gained a lot of useful information that will enable him to work closely with health professionals on Pandemic planning. See available Pandemic & CIMS training.Your Beach Your Say
Sharyn facilitating one of a series of public meetings relating to reducing erosion on Wellington beaches.
Response Team Training
Sharyn and Paul were both involved in Exercise Pegasus held in Christchurch. This involved them assessing, acting as Safety Officers and debriefing aspects of the response team activities over a weekend. Many of New Zealand's registered Response Teams attended the exercise to test their skills and network with others. For further information contact
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USAR Training
Sharyn and Paul are both certified Urban Search and Rescue Awareness (USAR) Trainers. This training involves them training groups at both national and local levels. For several years they have been contracted to the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management to deliver these courses. For further information contact
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Flood Safety Training
Devereux-Blum Training works with community based response teams to deliver the "Rapid" Flood Safety, Flood Response package. Around 74% of all Civil Defence declared emergencies are due to flooding highlighting a need to train response teams for flood conditions.
This photo were taken while we were running the Flood Safety course for the Hutt City Council and the Wainuiomata Bush Fire Force. Thirteen keen participants enjoyed superb weather to take the mid winter plunge. Three trainers put them through their paces.
Sharyn - Keynote Speaker on CIMS
Sharyn recently delivered a keynote speech at a conference on Emergency Management in Wellington on the key competencies in CIMS (Coordinated Incident Management System). We now deliver CIMS training to a wide client group throughout New Zealand.Whilst Sharyn was delivering her speech Paul was mentoring a Logistics Manager in his role during a two day CIMS exercise by the Department of Conservation on an incursion of an Avian Influenza.
The purpose of the exercise was to enable the Department to respond to the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) “bird flu” and manage the potential adverse impacts on threatened species.
The exercise focused on DOC's ability to manage, using the CIMS structure, their role in the pandemic working alongside MAF Biosecurity NZ.
Sharyn also delivered a keynote speech at the Ministry of Fisheries FishOps conference in Nelson. Sharyn used her facilitation skills for a morning with the group.
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USAR Awareness Trainers Course
A USAR Awareness Trainers course was held recently for people throughout the North Island. Those attending worked through the various requirements towards the qualification enabling them to train others in Urban Search and Rescue techniques. Here they are pictured during a lifting and cribbing exercise having been tasked with lifting a large block of concrete in a simulated emergency. Devereux-Blum Training are contracted to the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management as National Trainers and Assessors. For further information contact
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What's The Plan Stan
Sharyn and Leanne recently attended a workshop run by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management to introduce the package "What's the Plan Stan. This teaching resource for primary schools is aimed at promoting, understanding and planning for disasters.
This resource with curriculum linked ideas and activities in teaching programmes is a resource that Sharyn and Paul who are both trained teachers with current registration are looking forward to promoting. For further information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
School Evacuation Exercise
Leanne and Derek recently had the opportunity to observe a local primary school practice evacuation. For the first whole school evacuation it was well organised and ran very smoothly. We were impressed with the process of collection once parents/caregivers had arrived at school. We find the "What's the Plan Stan" a great resource and encourage all schools to use it where they can. Two of our team are registered teachers so we appreciated the opportunity to visit a school and see readiness in emergency management in action.
Team Professional Development. We are continually looking for ways to enhance our team's professional development and had the opportunity to partake in a 1 day course recently. We all found the course to be extremely useful for ideas to add into our training. It was great for us all to be able to partake in all of the activities and be able to feedback to each other what we thought of the content and relevance of the activity to our training.
Magazine Articles. The team has been approached by several national magazines to write feature articles for them. It is a great opportunity to pass on information regarding Emergency Preparedness for both at home and at work. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Earthquake and Tsunami Exercise - Nelson
In November we attended a two day Rescue exercise held in the Nelson region. The scenario was an earthquake that had hit the region and a backpackers’ hostel had collapsed.
The Upper Hutt Community Response team from the North Island and two South Island teams from Christchurch & Nelson responded. A large group of casualties were involved in the exercise. Paul and Sharyn acted as Incident Controller and Planning Intelligence Officer respectively for most of Saturday. Leanne assisted in a support role to the Incident Management team and Derek was actively involved with his Rescue team.
It was great to have the opportunity to put into practice all the skills and knowledge that we have in the team and to work with other response teams from around the country. The exercise provided a valuable opportunity to improve our state of readiness, practice our skills and learn from one another.
If you are interested in being involved in any future exercises or would like to run an exercise within your organisation contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Exercise Back Blast
Emergencies within the community can occur at any time or place. Devereux-Blum Training & Development Limited, along with local and regional council worked collaboratively together to plan an exercise which tested the regional capability to respond to a large scale emergency in the Wellington region.
This exercise took twelve months to plan and was recently run over a twenty-four hour period with over one hundred people involved. The scenario for exercise ‘Back Blast’ was a massive storm, with lightening hitting large tanks holding volatile by-products of a gas processing plant. The worst impacted area was a local secondary school. The objective of the exercise was to respond to the incident and for the response teams to work together in the rescue environment.
Three people from Devereux-Blum Training & Development Limited were actively involved in the response working with the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS). Paul & Sharyn (co-directors) were in key positions – Incident Controller and Planning & Intelligence with Leanne Brenchley assisting the Planning /Intelligence manager. Their role was to manage the emergency. This also included briefings to the mayor, media and other visitors coming onsite. If you are interested in being involved in any future exercises or would like to run an exercise within your organisation contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Exercise Cruickshank
Paul and Sharyn were involved in Exercise Cruickshank working alongside Health professionals from the Hutt Valley District Health Board in a National exercise.
The Ministry of Health held the nationwide influenza pandemic exercise involving all 21 District Health Boards, ESR and the Ministry of Health's National Health Coordination Centre.
Ministry staff and DHBs spent two days staging a scenario that involved "cluster control" or stamping out the pandemic before it could spread through the country.
If you are interested in being involved in any future exercises or would like to run an exercise within your organisation contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Storm Response Training
Devereux-Blum Training delivered four successful Storm Response courses for storm response teams in Wellington and Auckland. With the this years run of tornadoes in Taranaki, these skills are exactly those required to carry out improvised repairs to roofs, doors and windows following storm damage.
If you are interested in this type of training contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Education Conference 2008
Sharyn speaking at this years Teachers Conference as teachers prepare for their school year. The workshop focused on resiliency.
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Canada 2008
Paul and Sharyn recently visited Vancouver and Calgary in Canada to work with a corporate client and took the opportunity to visit a number of interestiing sites to further their knowledge of Incident Management (CIMS).
Here Paul is shown at a meeting with the coordinator of the Emergency Management Team in the EOC within one of Canada's larger hospitals.
Emergency Disposal of Sewage
Following a significant event, it is likely that the sewerage system (toilets and piping) will not be functioning due to no water supply and broken pipes. You need to plan for the sewerage system to be unavailable for at least 5 days, as it may take some time before local authorities can set up alternate arrangements, or for the sewerage system to be restored.Click on the following hyperlink for information: Emergency Disposal of Sewage
Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu-2009
Human cases of non-seasonal Influenza A (H1N1) 'swine flu' resulting from human to human transmission was identified in Mexico, in June 2009 with subsequent spread to many other countries.
The Ministry of Health is closely following international developments, and advice from the World Health Organization (WHO). CIMS is being used to manage this emergency across agencies.
Those wanting to keep up to date with the development of this flu can access the Ministry of Health's Website for the latest updates.
Automated Emergency Notification Solution
From 1 April 2009 Devereux-Blum Training & Development Limited is able to, as an authorised reseller to provide an automated emergency notification solution for emergency response groups, business continuity teams and disaster recovery planners throughout New Zealand and Australia. For more information click here or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
This service offers a viable solution to responding emergency response teams to an Incident Control Point (ICP) or Emergency Operations Centre (EOC)