This week has seen NZPFU members demonstrate their extraordinary commitment to their communities – both publicly and behind the scenes.
Yesterday off-duty NZPFU members joined 100,000 striking nurses, doctors, teachers, support and allied workers in health and education and prison officers in what has been dubbed by media as a defining moment in New Zealand’s history. Considered the largest protest action in 45 years, the numbers swelled in marches as students and members of the public took up the call to Save our Services.
Due to extreme weather most of the events in the South Island and lower North Island, including rallies had to be abandoned, but those striking were buoyed with live coverage from other rallies including the estimated 30,000 marching in Auckland city.
NZPFU members understand how gut-wrenching it is to have to strike but with a Government and state sector employers refusing to address the serious failings in health, education and emergency services there is no other option.
While chants of solidarity rang out across the middle-upper North Island, firefighters were battling historic conditions in the South Island and lower North Island with winds up to 150km per hour smashing into buildings and whipping up trees and vegetation causing bush fires and floods.
In some areas NZPFU had to leave the mass Save Our Services demonstrations to bolster crews responding to the extreme weather events. Invercargill members were cheered as they left the rally called back to assist with the ever-increasing number of emergencies caused by the extreme weather.
The NZPFU members staffing the 111 emergency dispatch centres had no relief as the calls by the public needing support and rescue kept coming. Volunteer Support Officers were busy behind the scenes ensuring the volunteer brigades were equipped and supported as they too battled the atrocious conditions to respond to their communities.
I realise that many of our members will think acknowledging their efforts this week, particularly responding to the extreme weather events, is not necessary as that is why they work for a fire and emergency service. The conditions may have been extraordinary, but they would say their response was just what they do.
But it is important to acknowledge these circumstances as it is increasingly more difficult for NZPFU members to do they job they love because the fire service is being managed into the ground.
Being able to call 111 and expect firefighters to respond to your emergency within minutes is at risk. Depending on where you live, and how staffing is managed in your area, that response may not be coming fast enough. There is a real risk that New Zealand may not be able to rely on a timely, effective and properly resourced and trained fire service at all.
Minutes can be the difference between life and death, between being able to resuscitate or perform rescue, being able to save lives and property.
It is no longer guaranteed that there is a working reliable fire appliance or the necessary crew ready and waiting for that call.
In 2025 there are fewer reliable working fire appliances and about the same number of career firefighters than New Zealand had in 1990.
In those 35 years the population has increased by 1.8 million with metro Auckland doubling yet the number of career firefighters has largely remained static with fewer aerial appliances and some fire trucks bought in the 1990s and early 2000s still being responded.
The New Zealand Fire Service (disestablished 2017) employed approximately 1700 professional career firefighters, 444 support staff and 80 dispatchers in the 111 emergency call centre.
Official Information show that as of 31 October 2024 FENZ employed 1779 firefighters with 1292 Management and support staff.
FENZ has changed its reporting classifications so it is increasingly difficult to decipher the true picture. Prior to 2024 the categories of career firefighters, volunteer firefighters, management and support, volunteer brigade support and volunteer operational support were benchmarked.
In 2024 FENZ changed the reporting categories to front line, front line enabler and corporate support. Frontline now includes all career and volunteer firefighters, 111 emergency dispatchers and their managers, Group, District and Region Managers, Community Risk Managers, Risk Reduction and Community Readiness and Recovery Advisors/Senior Advisors, Volunteer Support and specialist roles (USAR, Fire Engineers and Investigators), Regulatory and Compliance roles as well as other groups such as Maori and Cultural Communities.
In doing so FENZ has distorted the view of what the community would consider “front line” which successfully shields the stagnation of firefighter numbers and corresponding escalation of management and corporate roles in the past 9 years. In reality the number of career firefighters and dispatchers has barely changed.
Career Fire Stations are supposed to be strategically located to ensure effective response within 8 minutes.
Career firefighters constitute 13.5% of FENZ’s claimed firefighting force but protect approximately 70% of the population responding to about 70 % of all structure fires, 40% of all vegetation fires, 87% of all line rescues, 77% of all hazardous substance incidents and 75% of marine incidents.
Since 2013 Firefighters are the first response to the most serious of medical emergencies – code purple – where the member of the public has stopped breathing in situations like heart attacks, overdose, sudden death, suicide – they arrive before ambulance officers so response times have become more critical.
- During the New Zealand Fire Service era the standard for career firefighters was a 7 minute 30 second response time to be met 90% of the time.
- That later increased to 8 minutes response time.
- Since 2017 when FENZ was established the ability to meet the 8-minute response time has decreased hampered by longer distances, greater traffic, unreliable appliances and under-staffing. Instead of meeting addressing those obvious issues with better placed or additional fire stations with additional fire crews, FENZ has just reduced the standard.
- In 2025 the standard is a 8 minutes response time 80% of the time – and the latest reports show even that lower standard not being met.
What about funding?
While numbers of career firefighters has stagnated, the number of career stations is largely the same the funding has almost doubled.
- In 2016 the New Zealand Fire Service received $393.3 million from the fire service levy with a total revenue of 417.7 million.
- FENZ was established in 2017 with an injection of funding (including a loan) to establish the new organisation and integrate the rural brigades into the national fire service.
- FENZ’s 2024 Annual report recorded $749.3 million in revenue and in 2022—almost doubled the revenue in 9 years.
- In 2022 the NZPFU was informed that FENZ was on track to achieve $2 billion reserve over 20 years which was largely tagged for appliances and stations.
So why is Aotearoa New Zealand’s fire service failing?
The answer has to be mis-management. The failure to focus on the purpose of the organisation – to preserve life and property through prevention and emergency response and instead the focus of funds on a bloated management structure focused on corporate culture.
There must be a full and detailed inquiry into the FENZ’s expenditure since 2017 and whether the funding has been appropriately focused to undertake its core functions and purposes under the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act.
THIS IS A DIRE EMERGENCY – THE GOVERNMENT MUST ACT!
This notice is about the impact of FENZ’s mismanagement on the state of the fire service from a career staff perspective. We acknowledge the service and dedication of volunteers and their brigades and that they too are facing a Dire Emergency. The NZPFU has been inundated with calls from volunteers seeking support and advocacy as they struggle with failing appliances, increased demands on their time and failing mental health due to the impacts of emergency response.
In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary
