Monday, 27 September 2021 11:03

New local leadership structure for Fire and Emergency NZ

Written by  Staff Reporters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand have announced a new structure for district management. Fire and Emergency New Zealand have announced a new structure for district management.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand has announced the stand-up of 17 new districts, replacing the split 24 urban areas and 18 rural fire districts across the country.

Chief executive Rhys Jones says that bringing together over 40 rural and urban fire services and 14,000 people has been a huge undertaking.

“But getting all the different firefighting set ups working together as one national organisation has been necessary,” Jones says.

“Our structural changes are about building a unified national emergency management organisation to meet the changing risks communities face across both the built and natural environments,” he says.

Prior to the new structure announced today, Fire and Emergency maintained a similar leadership structure to the organisations that preceded it, with area managers leading focused brigades and stations, and principal rural fire officers leading rurally focused brigades.

Under the new structure, all brigades and stations will sit together under their respective newly appointed district managers.

National commander Kerry Gregory says Fire and Emergency’s work goes a lot further than putting out fires and the new teams will reflect its wider remit.

“For years now, the proportion of fire callouts has been reducing compared to other incidents – and this will continue to be the case. A changing climate means we’ll need to respond to more frequent and severe natural disasters in the future. We are also attending more road accidents, medical callouts and incidents involving hazardous materials.”

Gregory says the new structure enables Fire and Emergency New Zealand to continue to respond to emergencies and work with communities to keep them safe.

“Reducing the risk of fire is the single most effective thing we can do in seeking to protect New Zealand’s people, property and environment. Our new structure enables us to put an increased focus on risk reduction and supporting communities to be resilient and able to recover more quickly from the impact of emergencies.”

He says this is an important and exciting time for Fire and Emergency and its people.

“I am confident our district managers have the skills needed to successfully deliver our goals and they have my full support. I am looking forward to working alongside them in their new roles.

“We are thrilled to have reached this point and have our new structure stood up to better support New Zealand communities.”

More like this

Featured

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

National

Machinery & Products

Tech might take time

Agritech Unleashed – a one-day event held recently at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton – focused on technology as an ‘enabler’…

John Deere acquires GUSS Automation

John Deere has announced the full acquisition of GUSS Automation, LLC, a globally recognised leader in supervised high-value crop autonomy,…

Fencing excellence celebrated

The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards,…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

A step too far

OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…

Save us from SAFE

OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter