Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) is replacing 12.5 jobs within Otago with 17 new roles. 

Gone are the rural fire and area management roles: Instead, there will be nine readiness and recovery and risk reduction advisors, one district manager, one community risk manager and six group managers.

FENZ national commander Kerry Gregory said safety for firefighters and the public remains paramount and frontline firefighters and officers at stations or brigades will not be affected by these changes. 

“The new positions are designed to build a unified national emergency management organisation with a greater variety of skills and subject matter expertise to meet the changing risks communities are facing across rural and urban environments – including climate change, new technology and a changing population,” he said.

Kerry said these changes were not about job or cost reduction; rather the aim was to ensure the FENZ structure and capability aligns with its organisational goals and strategies now and in the future. 

FENZ was established three years ago to bring together more than 40 firefighting organisations and approximately 14,000 people.

Since that time FENZ has coordinated fire fighting resources to control a number of serious local fires, such as the Mt Alpha fire in 2018 and the Lake Ōhau Village fire in October this year, and provides advice for controlled rural burnoffs.

In June this year FENZ announced decisions affecting its operating structure which included disestablishing a number of positions, mostly general management and fire risk management roles.

PHOTO: Wanaka App