Pinging @BlakJak and @sbiddle

I'd be more than happy to come and house sit for you while you're away, provided you have a good one of these:

scuwp:

 

clevedon:

 

Pumpedd:

 

Seems a time waster in the event of a real emergency.

 

I am sure the local fire station doesnt have a peg board with a set of keys for every property. They would use brute force but it would still take extra time.

 

 

 

 

Our local Fire Brigade have our gate keys, and lots of other property owners keys/codes in our area.

 

 

 

 

Fine in rural areas where there are limited properties and only a single brigade.  In the cities the brigade could come from anywhere and just imagine the size of the key ring needed!   

 

The OP is rural, (and so are we) I thought that's what we are talking about.

You see so very few gated properties in town so not much of a problem really.

BlakJak: Hi, Vol Operational Support FF here - as is @sbiddle but neither of us deal with this stuff directly. FENZ will break in if they have to in order to save life or property. You can - and should - provide details on how to gain access (including keys, probably). Talk to your local fire station and they will give you all the advice you need. Your local station make it their business to know their neighbourhood including any issues with access. There is secure storage at the station for keys, when a turnout occurs for an address where keys are held, access to the secure box is provided. Don't hesitate to ring your local station at any time and ask questions, that's what they're there for!

Thanks, I will. We see all the guys and girls often anyway as they work in the local shops and so on and there's only just over 1000 people in the village anyway, so it's probably very different to an urban scenario.

For the record, I spoke to the Brigade secretary (at least I think that's what he said his job title was!) and he said yes, they do keep gate codes and so on for commercial buildings but that I was in fact the first residential customer to ask the question, which was odd now he came to think about it!

He gave me their PO Box and said to drop them a line with the information when available and he would ensure it was stored appropriately. He also concurred that giving the info to the alarm monitoring company was a sensible additional step.

scuwp:

clevedon:

 

Pumpedd:

 

Seems a time waster in the event of a real emergency.

 

I am sure the local fire station doesnt have a peg board with a set of keys for every property. They would use brute force but it would still take extra time.

 

 

 

 

Our local Fire Brigade have our gate keys, and lots of other property owners keys/codes in our area.

 

 

 

 

Fine in rural areas where there are limited properties and only a single brigade.  In the cities the brigade could come from anywhere and just imagine the size of the key ring needed!   

Coil:

Relating to this, A friend of mine who lives in Devonport has a weird curbside and he has to cross a FH to get into his driveway. Without noticing I had parked across such Hydrant for them to tell me "If there was a fire the truck would ram your car out the way to access the hydrant." 
Would they I wonder? I have a fireman sitting behind me at work, I'll find out soon.

Cracks me up people ramming things in fire trucks...

Had a conversation with brother-in-law last night about dealing with burst water mains (one was on the news) here in Adelaide (he's a SAMFS senior officer). They can't even turn off a mains unless it threatens a life. Then it's a senior officers call... It could be causing massive $$$ in flooding damage, but they'll sandbag first.

I  brought up ramming things and he ROFLd.

BlakJak:

Coil:

 

Relating to this, A friend of mine who lives in Devonport has a weird curbside and he has to cross a FH to get into his driveway. Without noticing I had parked across such Hydrant for them to tell me "If there was a fire the truck would ram your car out the way to access the hydrant." 
Would they I wonder? I have a fireman sitting behind me at work, I'll find out soon.

 

If you park in a way that obstructs a hydrant - dashed yellows or not - you're breaking the law. But yes they'll move you if they need to - usually by smashing a quarter window and getting in to release the handbrake/transmission and push you out of the way. Usually they'll try to find an alternate hydrant first, and get the cops to track down the registered owner of a vehicle if they're about (as they would be for bigger fires). This sort of thing remains in the 'only in America' category most of the time:

Would that hose not just have gone under the car or over the roof?

Friend of mine owned a 6 wheel Carmichael MFV airport fire engine (ex RAF) which was a hoot to drive - and would make an excellent ramming fire truck! The foam cannon on top was a good toy too, even with just water. He ran a business doing corporate away days where you could drive that, a couple of tanks, an Alvis Stalwart amphibious thing (that was fun - we swam it across a lake once) and that sort of thing.

This isn't directly relevant here but it's a very interesting watch all the same, I'd definitely recommend it.

This guy is a pro physical penetration tester, and he touches on various vulnerabilities in doors (everything *except* the locks for the most part). Of particular interest though is that he talks around some of the mechanisms in place by fire services in the US, and how they have been used by attackers to gain access.

I don't think it's likely a concern here particularly, but the conversation reminded me of it. Give it a whirl!

Geektastic:

 

 

 

 

Would that hose not just have gone under the car or over the roof?

 

Or over the bonnet, of out one of the side outlets on the fire fitting on the hydrant, when you look at the direction the hose goes... It's 'murica, and the tool that did it had to prove a point... "they won't park there again". Lucky the *person* that did this wasn't a 'murica cop, or they might've just shot the driver.

Geektastic:

 

timmmay:

 

I didn't realise rural New Zealand was so dangerous! Maybe you could have your armed guard open the gates if something catches fire? ;)

 

 

 

 

I would if I could....!

 

It's not dangerous per se, of course, although the police response from Masterton would be 30 minutes at least and there have been a couple of incidents of nutters on the loose in the time I have been here. It's burglary, mainly. We get a lot of random vehicles coming up the drive and turning round for no apparent reason which is suspicious behaviour in my book and relatively frequently we get burglary sprees in the rural properties. Anything you can do to make it harder for them increases the likelihood they will just pick something easier.

 

 

 

Also keeps the Jehovahs out as well as an added bonus, of course!

 

Happens sometimes out here too...

Have not seen it for the last year and half... something todo with cameras the last time a "scoping" attempt was taken.

have heard reports further down the hill of it still going on every so often.... normally the local community is pretty quick to clearly define the suspicious folk.

Alternatively, a big stick could be a good deterrent ;)

CapBBeard:

 

This isn't directly relevant here but it's a very interesting watch all the same, I'd definitely recommend it.

 

This guy is a pro physical penetration tester, and he touches on various vulnerabilities in doors (everything *except* the locks for the most part). Of particular interest though is that he talks around some of the mechanisms in place by fire services in the US, and how they have been used by attackers to gain access.

 

I don't think it's likely a concern here particularly, but the conversation reminded me of it. Give it a whirl!

 

 

I'll watch that.

You can buy shotguns with breeching attachments on the barrel end and special cartridges - you push the muzzle hard up against the door hinge and BANG - do it to each hinge and the door just falls in!