New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards

No smoke but on fire – NZ Fire training centre an engineering award finalist

11 October 2007

Rotorua’s New Zealand Fire Service National Recruit Training Centre was announced a category finalist in the 2007 New Zealand Engineering Excellence (NZEE) Awards today.

The third New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for New Zealand engineering professionals. The awards are presented in two major areas: Individual Awards, that recognise leadership, entrepreneurship, and our young engineers; and Category Awards, that recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Category winners.

Full Architectural and Engineering design services for the New Zealand Fire Service National Recruit Training Centre at Eastgate Business Park, Rotorua were provided by engineering consultancy Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM).

The National Recruitment Training Centre in Rotorua brings together all the New Zealand Fire Service’s training resources in one unique and purpose-built facility. Career and volunteer fire-fighters receive the best in available training, equipment, and fire simulation exercises.

Where there’s fire, there’s usually smoke. At the training centre, fire can rage within the Live Fire Training Building while the smoke emissions on the boundary remain zero. Zero emissions benefit the surrounding community, Lake Rotorua, and the adjacent major highway and airport. And to put out the fires, the site is designed to harvest and recycle storm water, as well as capture, treat and reuse all water from training exercises, minimising the demand for one of our most precious resources.

SKM worked alongside of the New Zealand Fire Service to create a facility which utilised sustainability and clean technologies to reduce resource consumption and significantly reduce the impact of its activities on the environment.

David Elms, Convenor of the Category Awards judging panel said that the calibre of finalist projects highlighted the contribution that professional engineers make to New Zealand on a social, economic and environmental scale.

“These projects made the finalist cut because they each are outstanding examples of engineering innovation”, says Mr Elms. “This year’s finalists impressed the judges by demonstrating how their projects contributed to the national economy and the reputation of New Zealand engineering and impacted on quality of life in their communities”.

Winners of both individual and category awards will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner at TE PAPA, Wellington on Wednesday, 21 November 2007.

The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are hosted by a consortium of five partners and 10 contributing organisations. The partners are: Centre for Advanced Engineering (CAE); Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand Incorporated (INGENIUM); Electricity Engineers Association of New Zealand (EEA); Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (ACENZ); and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Inc (IPENZ).

Media enquiries contact:

Verona-Meiana Putaranui, NZEE Awards Media Co-ordinator

Email: media@ipenz.org.nz

Phone: +64 4 473 2028 or Cell: +64 21 479885