Public input into re-shaping the internal organisation of the fire service closes out in two weeks.
The July 10 deadline closes the door on community input into the biggest reorganisation of the fire service since the Ballantyne's fire in Christchurch in 1947.
Firefighters rank among the country's most respected occupations.
Ballantynes department store burned down in daylight in November 1947, killing 41 people. The Commission of Inquiry found the fire brigade failed to act effectively in the first ten minutes after arrival.
But it also found that the department store's additions and alterations breached city council by laws, and that the by laws concerning fire escapes were defective and practically inoperative.
Christchurch City By-laws were similarly found to be inadequate and their administration irregular and ill administered. The city over-rode its own bylaw allowing Ballantynes to make extensive and illegal use of untreated soft wood fibre board in internal alterations.
The inquiry resulted in changes in fire regulations and administration that underpin the modern fire service.
Internal affairs minister Peter Dunne says while the fire service was nationalised in 1975, it has remained basically unchanged since 1947.
He's conducting a review of the fire service and has been in the Bay of Plenty recently as part of a national tour, listening to firefighter's views on the future direction the service should take.
He's got a unique set of issues. The organisation has around 12,500 personnel, or whom 80 per cent are volunteers.
The fire Service is New Zealand's premier emergency service, says Peter.
Paid staff and urban and rural volunteers consistently rank very highly amongst the country's most respected occupations.
Whatever the community incident – structure or vegetation fire, urban search and rescue, roadside assists or cutting people out of cars, and retrieving cats from trees, the New Zealand Fire Service is there.
Because of the overwhelming reliance on volunteers both urban and rural, any changes have to emphasise building a better experience for the volunteers, as well as the paid staff, in terms of training, respect and equipment.
That's to ensure firefighters are as well equipped, prepared and resourced as they can be, but also to attract the volunteers needed in future, says Peter.
'If we move to a genuinely unified national Fire Service, or make steps towards that, people want to be assured that the particular interests and differences of our regions are reflected in the new structure,” says Peter.
'And they are right – New Zealand is a diverse country where one size does not fit all. The needs of Otago/Southland, or Northland, or the West Coast, for example, are as different from each other as they are from Wellington or Auckland.
'To succeed, the new structure will have to reflect that and ensure that the interests of local communities, from where our firefighters have traditionally sprung, are recognised and valued.”
Over the past three weeks, he's talked to firefighters in Canterbury, Manawatu-Whanganui, Northland, Southland, Bay of Plenty, Wairarapa and Wellington.
He's also heard from the wider community; forest owners, farmers, council representatives and business owners.
Their feedback is the time is right for change. There are at present options under consideration;
One is ‘co-ordinated service delivery' the other is one national fire service.
'If there was to be one national fire service, stakeholders say it would need to incorporate local decision-making, be an organisation that was responsive to local needs, and would need careful transition planning,” says Peter.
'So I have made it clear in my conversations that active community engagement is going to be a cornerstone of any new model. A new way of managing and delivering fire services will need to take account of the wide variety of local conditions and circumstances in each community.
'I have therefore asked officials to think about how community engagement could be part of our fire services.”
The concerns are that the changes will ensure the fire services meet local community needs and risks; have a strong community engagement with local decision-making; and are able to make the necessary cultural changes so firefighters can work together and that the feeling of fire services being driven from the top down is avoided; retain strong links to emergency services and reliable delivery of those services; and have strong and careful transition planning so skilled and capable firefighters do not leave during the process.
'The Government has deliberately and wisely, not stated a preferred outcome at this stage,” says Peter.
'Our consultations are based on wanting to hear what communities think, so we can devise a system that meets their needs.
'Once the public consultation process ends in mid-July, my officials and I will work to develop the new model, which I want to put before Cabinet later in the year. My aim is to get the necessary legislation through Parliament next year, and to have the new Fire Service in place by April 2017.”
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