Admistration changes – service as usual

As I write this months report a significant milestone in our history will take place in four days time. On the 1st July 2017, the New Zealand Fire Service along with 39 other Fire Authorities will amalgamate to become an entirely new organisation. This new organisation- Fire and Emergency New Zealand – will give our firefighters the support they need to protect and help prepare our communities now and into the future.

Our Firefighters do a great job already but their job is changing all the time. Originally, firefighters just focussed on fire. Now they do a whole lot more, such as responding to motor vehicle crashes, medical emergencies, hazardous materials spillages, storms, floods, earthquakes and a wide range of special rescue situations. Readers may be surprised to learn that 48% of the emergency incidents the Martinborough Brigade responds to are medical emergencies.

The new fire and emergency organisation will comprise 626 brigades and fire forces with 14,100 staff and volunteers. 83% of the new organisations personnel will be volunteer personnel. South Wairarapa is served entirely by volunteers from Tora, Ngawi, Lake Ferry, Martinborough, Featherston and Greytown communities.
For the public, its business as usual for the Brigades and Fire Forces and you can expect the same high standard of service from them. The big changes will be noticed internally. The Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017 provides firefighters with a broader mandate and powers to match the wide range of emergencies we respond to nowadays.

Most importantly, many provisions have been made to provide better support for volunteer fire and emergency service personnel. For more information visit the website www.fenzproject.co.nz
The Government have recognised the importance of keeping the service “local”. That means retaining local volunteer leadership so the roles of Chief Fire Officers, Rural Fire Controllers and their Deputies will be retained in the new structure.

In addition to training for our emergency roles, brigade members constantly strive to prepare themselves for leadership roles as part of our succession planning. We are delighted to recognise three of our local members who recently qualified and have been promoted to the rank Senior Firefighter. Senior Firefighters Wayne Thomas, Jamie Brock and Justin Hudepohl are a welcome addition to the brigades leadership structure.

Bill Butzbach Chief Fire Officer Martinborough Fire District.