Source: Radio New Zealand
Emails seen by RNZ showed FENZ turned down the US State Department in March. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Fire and Emergency has turned down a request to help one of the United States’ top two urban search and rescue teams.
The USA-02 team in Los Angeles county wanted a specific expert to mentor them for one or two weeks a year ahead of a big test in 2029.
“A great honour,” said the manager who got the request last November.
USA-02 came to Christchurch’s aid after the 2011 earthquake and was part of US efforts to help here after Cyclone Gabrielle.
The 60 or so internationally-mandated USAR teams routinely help each other out with training – and help out other countries after disasters.
The international body called INSARAG said FENZ has a strong record for doing that.
But in this case, emails seen by RNZ showed FENZ turned down the US State Department in March.
The agency said it had to prioritise New Zealand and the Pacific.
“The issue was solely one of timing and organisational readiness,” Ken Cooper, national manager of response capability, said in an internal email last month.
However, Chris Lind, the expert the US wanted, emailed Cooper in March: “This represents a lost opportunity to grow our people and our teams for the better, at no cost to the organisation – particularly valuable in a fiscally constrained environment.”
USAR operations manager Glenn Hudson handled the initial request and called the rejection “short sighted” – the emails showed he had urged top management to quickly OK Lind going before some other agency got asked; it was a chance “to put FENZ and NZ Inc branding on the world stage”.
‘We’d love to have Chris’
RNZ understands it sometimes happens that mentor requests between countries are turned down, but not usually.
The Americans had specifically wanted Lind who they had worked with “extensively” including during Gabrielle in 2023, and noted how they had a big joint exercise coming up in May 2026 and “we’d love to have Chris there if he’s able to join us”.
The request added the sweetener for a second expert to come along each year with Lind, adding as usual with travel and accommodation expenses – but not salaries – paid.
They would have worked to help USA-02 pass its next five-yearly test to be reclassified to United Nations standards in 2029 – the gold standard for earthquake and landslide rescues. It is one of just two American teams classified this way. FENZ provided a mentor to help USA-01 pass in 2022 (NZL-01 who led at the fatal Mt Maunganui landslide this year passed their latest big test in 2024).
When RNZ began making inquiries, Fire and Emergency said it would not be proceeding with the mentor proposal.
“New Zealand’s current strategic focus is on developing and supporting capability across the Pacific nations, which requires us to prioritise our people and resources accordingly,” it said in a statement.
It did not agree to an interview.
Hudson played a key role marshalling USAR forces at Mt Maunganui.
In the emails, he told Cooper the LA county job would give personnel significant exposure to the international rescue environment at virtually no cost.
Later, he labelled the time taken to decide on it “embarrassing”, the lack of follow-up “another example of … poor leadership” and the decision itself “short-sighted”.
“I had hoped that Chris’s involvement would both reinforce and strengthen relationships with our partners, including the US and INSARAG,” he wrote.
INSARAG – the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group in Geneva – said it was a bilateral matter.
“It’s not our business to impose anything on them or to comment on their decisions.”
But it added that FENZ had made a “significant… and lasting contribution” to search and rescue internationally down the years.
FENZ is tied up in a contentious and months-long delayed restructuring that included a proposal to change top USAR – urban search and rescue – jobs.
‘We’ve got some very good friends’
USA-02 provided some of the 600 rescue workers from six countries that Christchurch relied on after the February 2011 quake.
“We’ve got some very good friends,” Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said at the time.
The US ambassador echoed this in 2023 when a dozen technical experts were sent here after Cyclone Gabrielle: “When disaster strikes we are there for one another.”
FENZ reports talk of the “breadth and range” of its USAR capability and how they could be deployed worldwide “at a moment’s notice”.
NZL-01 rescued people after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In 2023, 49 INSARAG teams led the search for thousands of people buried under rubble in Türkiye and Syria. Others went to Beirut after the port explosion in 2020, to the Indian ocean tsunami in 2004 and the 2015 Nepal quake.
INSARAG’s Sebastian Rhodes Stampa in Geneva told RNZ that Fire and Emergency’s record was strong.
“This includes supporting classifications or reclassifications for multiple teams over the years within the Asia-Pacific Region and as far away as Europe and the USA,” he said.
After the 2016 Kaikōura quake it led development of a new coordination and management system since adopted by teams globally.
‘I see the writing on the wall’
Hudson had urged Cooper for a quick OK when the request landed on November 25 from Robert Chapman at the State Department’s office of international disaster operations.
It was a “great honour”, Hudson had immediately told Chapman.
He told Cooper “should we deny this request we would be missing out” on FENZ staff development.
But by January and February there had been no decision.
“I am personally sorry this has taken so long,” Hudson told Chapman. He’d had trouble “getting this request across the line” and now he was stepping back while it was referred upwards to a FENZ deputy chief executive, understood to be Megan Stiffler.
“Standing by,” replied Chapman.
On March 17 Chapman wrote that he had not heard back. “Nothing from Megan … pretty sure I see the writing on the wall here, but it would be helpful for me to get it in writing so I can take it back up my chain.”
A few hours later, he got the thumbs down, Hudson writing, “We have looked at all workloads… and our current restructure will rely heavily on his [Lind’s] input developing USAR capability within New Zealand and with our Pacific partners.”
But an hour earlier an upset Hudson had emailed Cooper that FENZ was going to miss out on free and valuable development and strategic benefits.
In addition, he was in the “embarrassing” position of having told the State Department it would hear from FENZ leadership. “When I spoke to them today … I had to quickly make excuses for the lack of communication from the DCE.”
Lind also said the delay was frustrating and left the State Department hanging.
But he accepted the decision and would carry on, as he had always advocated being capable “within our own backyard in the first instance”, Lind wrote.
‘Prioritise our people and resources’
Cooper rejected that the decision was shortsighted or the process showed poor leadership.
FENZ had had options to work with the US without making the mentor opportunity specific to one person at the outset.
“This option was fully considered and supported by the DCE and you were asked to communicate that offer to the US state department,” he emailed Hudson and Lind.
RNZ understands it would be unusual if one country asked for someone by name as a mentor, for the other country to go ahead offering someone else.
Cooper said there was no guarantee of direct leadership engagement in a set timeframe and the process “does not warrant undermining comments”.
FENZ told RNZ it was all about focus: “It is important that we remain focused on the challenges and priorities we are facing organisationally and within the region.
It had “always been, and remains, supportive of opportunities and continues its active participation in INSARAG. We hope to continue work with our US counterparts to look at ways in which we can offer guidance and supportive.”
RNZ approached the US embassy for comment.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand