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
22 May 2026
Ref: 21558
Harwood Wilson
[FYI request #34532 email] Tēnā koe Harwood
Thank you for your request of 23 April 2026 to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting the
following information under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA):
•
The number of career appliances (including pumps, ladders, and specials) that were not
operating at full capacity (either out of service or short-crewed) during the months of
January, February, March, and April 2026.
Please table the number of hours these appliances were not operating at full capacity, by
month and by reason (i.e. mechanical issues, no crew, short-crewed, industrial action,
special events, etc.). This should exclude appliances recommissioning post-incident or
callback appliances.
If any data is not available, please detail the reason it is not recorded and outline any plans
Fire and Emergency New Zealand has to improve data collection and address issues
contributing to appliances being out of service or short-crewed.
This letter is to advise that Fire and Emergency needs to extend the timeframe of our response to
your request by 5 working days, under section 15A(1)(b) of the OIA, as consultations necessary to
make a decision on the request are such that a proper response to the request cannot reasonably
be made within the original time limit.
For this reason, you can expect to receive our response no later than 29 May 2026. We will
endeavour to respond sooner than this date if possible. If you no longer require this information,
please let us know.
You have the right to request an investigation and review of Fire and Emergency’s decision to
extend the timeframe by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make a complaint is
available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Aidan Saunders
Manager, Information Requests
