National Headquarters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
National Headquarters
Spark Central, Level 7
42-52 Willis Street
Wellington Central
Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 496 3600
2 December 2024
Ref: 16259
Stan Maguire
[FYI request #29140 email] Tēnā koe Stan
Thank you for your request of 11 November 2024, to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting
information relating to career and volunteer fire fighters under the Official Information Act 1982
(OIA). Please find our response below.
1. The current numbers for career firefighters, management, and support staff employed by
FENZ,
The table below shows the number of active career firefighters and management or support staff,
as well as the sum of the full-time equivalent (FTE) as of 31 October 2024. Where an employee has
been seconded to a role, that position has been reported.
Business Group
Headcount
Career Firefighters
1,779
Management and Support Staff
1,292
Total
3,071
2. The current number of urban/rural volunteers,
The table below shows the number of active rural and urban volunteer contracts as of 31 October
2024. Please note, a volunteer can join multiple brigades. In the urban and rural contracts, each
volunteer is counted in each of their brigades, which means the same volunteer can be counted
more than once.
Role
Contracts
Rural Volunteer
3,342
Urban Volunteer
8,726
3. The number of career, composite and volunteer stations (incl rural),
The table below shows the total number of stations by type as of 31 October 2024. Please note
that the composite station count includes a station that is classified as both career and volunteer.
The volunteer composite stations are not included in the total volunteer station group.
Station Type
Total
Career Station
45
Composite Station
34
Volunteer Station
557
Total
636
4. The percentage of total incidents attended by career firefighters versus volunteer
firefighters (versus both?),
Please find attached, as the
Appendix to this response, a breakdown of incidents responded to in
the last 12 months since the date of your request by career firefighters, volunteer firefighters, and
shared responses.
5. Population coverage (career, composite, volunteer)
We can advise that there is not currently an accurate method to measure how much of the
population is covered by the three types of brigades. For this reason, this aspect of your request is
refused under section 18(e) of the OIA, as the document alleged to contain the information
requested does not exist.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
We trust that the information being provided is of assistance. If you require further information,
please email [FENZ request email].
Please note that because of the identified public interest in the information that you have
requested, we intend to publish this response (with your personal details removed) on our
website.
Nāku noa, nā
Aidan Saunders
Manager, Information Requests
