Dear Fire and Emergency New Zealand,

The Operational Review of the 2017 Port Hills fire included a recommendation to move from the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) standard for the management of emergencies used by all other emergency services and other agencies in New Zealand to the system used by some Australian fire services. The review of the 2019 Tasman fires also supported this Port Hill recommendation.

The recommendation (#1) from Port Hills was:

“Fire and Emergency New Zealand adopts a single doctrine, the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS), for incident management”.

FENZ accepted this recommendation and the Action Plan announced and published by FENZ was:

1. The new organisation use this doctrine to train/exercise and develop people.
1.1 We will conduct joint wildfire exercises (table top or in-field) with rural and urban personnel in the regions to reinforce the way we want to work as an integrated team. Within each region’s fire season1 and annually thereafter Regional Managers (Fire Region Managers/Regional Managers Rural)
1.2 We will issue a joint statement to all operational personnel, to reinforce our focus on working together. November 2017 National Commander Urban and National Manager Rural.
1.3 We will contact other agencies (particularly Civil Defence and Police) to indicate that a move to AIIMS is being considered. December 2017 Chief Executive, National Commander Urban and National Manager Rural.
1.4 We will roll out enhanced Command and Control training. To be confirmed – probable pilot before the end of the year Regional Managers (Fire Region Managers/Regional Managers Rural)
1.5 We will conduct Port Hills review sessions with regional leadership teams, reinforce key messages and agree on specific local actions to be taken in each region. December 2017 Regional Managers (Fire Region Managers/Regional Managers Rural)
1.6 We will train relevant Fire and Emergency personnel and other agencies on incident management system (AIIMS if adopted). December 2017 for regional managers, Rollout January 2018 – June 2020 (Director Training).

Under the provisions of the Official Information Act I request the following information with respect to the move as set out above:

1. Confirm that FENZ’s move to AIIMS is complete as per the recommendation of the Port Hills Operational Review (September 2017) and set out in FENZ’s published Action Plan including the training of relevant Fire and Emergency personnel and other agencies (ref 1.6 above). If this move is not complete in the 3 years since Port Hills, advise any outstanding tasks and the timeframe to complete the move.

2. Provide a copy of the relevant sections of the FENZ Command and Control Manual (or other instructions) as at 1 July 2020 that set out the instructions to its personnel in establishing incident ground management for “FENZ Only” incidents.

3. Provide a copy of the relevant sections of the FENZ Command and Control Manual (or other instructions) as at 1 July 2020 that set out the instructions to personnel in establishing incident ground management for incidents where FENZ is the Lead Agency but where other agencies are also involved.

4. Provide a copy of the relevant sections of the FENZ Command and Control Manual (or other instructions) as at 1 July 2020 that set out the instructions to personnel for establishing incident ground management where FENZ is a supporting agency (ie where FENZ is not the Lead Agency).

Yours faithfully,

Alan Thompson