The heroes of Saturday's fatal Hamilton inferno are up for bravery awards as hospitalised firefighters work on getting to their colleague's funeral tomorrow.
Derek Lovell, 49, died on Saturday after a blast ripped through the Icepak coolstore in Tamahere on the southern outskirts of Hamilton. Seven others were hurt and six are still in hospital in Auckland or Hamilton. However, some of the injured firefighters want to be at Mr Lovell's funeral in Hamilton tomorrow if they are well enough to leave hospital.
Merv Neil, 43, was critically ill in the burns unit at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital with burns over 70 percent of his body. The other five, David Beanland, 44, Adrian Brown, 51, Brian Halford, 37, Alvan Walker, 35, Dennis Wells, 51, were stable and improving in Waikato Hospital. Cameron Grylls, 29, was slightly hurt and not hospitalised. The Fire Service said yesterday work had already started on the process of recommending various people for bravery awards.
Firefighters, ambulance staff, off-duty medical staff from a nearby function, and members of the public rushed to the coolstore when they heard the explosion, dragged injured firefighters clear and gave them first aid.
Their efforts were later described as "incredibly brave" by Waikato Hospital's head of trauma surgery, Grant Christey.
He said the explosion would have raced through the coolstore at 2000kmh and had the same high energy levels as a terror bomb blast in Iraq or London.
The Fire Service assistant commander of the Bay-Waikato region, Roy Breeze, said emergency workers and members of the public who rushed to help after the explosion had done "an incredible job.
"There will be commendations to a number of people. We've already got lists of the people who were involved," he told The New Zealand Herald.
"We're trying to assess everyone, including the public, police, ambulance - everyone's involvement in what they did - assessing the recognition that is required for the rewards to various people."
