Tauranga firefighters are preparing for their second strike.

Paid firefighters are expected to walk off the job from 11am to 12pm today.

This follows the first strike which took place at the same time last Friday, August 19, to protest against 'resource issues, understaffing and low wages”.

Professional Firefighters Union Tauranga representative Mike Swanson says the strikes are the 'first time” he has ever seen firefighters leave the station unattended.

'Some of our staff are doing 60, 80 and sometimes even 100 hours a week.

'Sometimes we don't know if our extremely old vehicles will start when we turn the key.

'It's not a criticism of local management, this is a national fire issue.

'We will be at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Cameron Road for one hour.”

Other issues Mike says firefighters are hoping to address include 'proper physical and mental health support.”

'The World Health Organisation describes firefighting as the same risk to cancer as smoking. If one of us gets cancer and we go to ACC they want to know what fire it was we got cancer at. The answer is ‘all of them' but that's not how it works.

'Situations like doing CPR on someone's family member while they are screaming at you to bring them back while the kids are watching, it takes a psychological toll on you. There's all sorts of trauma we have to process.

'We don't get any additional training or support for that. There's many better ways to do this.”

The strike taking place today is an attempt at 'seeing some accountability” from FENZ according to Mike, who is hoping that today's strike will kick-start some conversations he sees as 'overdue”.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand deputy national commander Brendan Nally says they have "contingency plans in place which will enable us to continue to respond to emergencies in impacted urban areas primarily served by career firefighters".

But with significantly fewer firefighters and 111 Communication centre dispatchers than usual, Brendan says their responses will be delayed.

"Volunteers from almost 600 fire stations nationally will respond to emergencies as they do now and provide the services they are trained to do.

"Volunteers on the fringes of career zones will be responding from their own stations in their own trucks to help as they do now when there are multiple emergencies at one time. Executive officers will also respond.

"Part of our contingency planning includes not responding to less serious incidents in career zones during the hour of the strike.

"For example, this would include private fire alarms where there is no evidence of a fire, small rubbish fires or animal rescues. This will ensure our resources are focused where they are needed most.

"The strike action means that, for the hour in question, career crews will be unable to respond to medical emergencies as they usually would. We have notified St John and Wellington Free Ambulance.

"Volunteers will not be turned out to medical response outside of their usual area.

"I know all our firefighters care deeply about serving their communities and keeping people safe.

"The NZPFU's decision to escalate the industrial action, despite a substantially increased offer, is extremely disappointing."