{"id":62228,"date":"2025-10-06T16:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62228\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:19:08","slug":"northland-fire-chiefs-warn-volunteer-shortage-putting-response-times-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62228\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland fire chiefs warn volunteer shortage putting response times at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The station averages 350 calls a year, making it one of the busiest in Northland, and Hutchinson said at times they are not able to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an accident last week and were not able to get a fire truck out the door, because we just don\u2019t have the people. We had to get another station on the call, there were two people trapped, and it resulted in a delay of about 40 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they try to get volunteers and urged the community to get involved in the brigade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at least 10 members short. We should have 28 and currently have 18 members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Kaikohe station has 18 members but needs at least 28 to stay fully crewed.<\/p>\n

He said he believed that many people don\u2019t realise volunteer firefighters have day jobs and often have to leave work to go out on calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a real risk [in low numbers] because if you don\u2019t respond with the right amount of people, it can become a risk for the crew and sometimes I have to make a judgment call.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said being stretched thin as a brigade took a toll on him and his members and he urged the community to get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes back to communities, the fire service made it clear that they will supply the station and the equipment and the communities need to provide the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kait\u0101ia fire chief Craig Rogers said it was not as bad in Kait\u0101ia, but would welcome more volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have good numbers the workload is spread out and it does become more enjoyable\u2026When you don\u2019t have strong numbers the workload is left to a few and that can lead to burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogers recently welcomed a group of six volunteer firefighters, including teen twin brothers Nathaniel and Ethan Vemoa<\/a>. He said the new recruits were doing very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe enjoy what we do, and we put a lot of training in and it\u2019s really rewarding being able to use that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for everyone, being a firefighter. It\u2019s a big commitment, but it is very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency NZ said volunteers are the backbone of the fire service and called on the community to step in and help change the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we cannot safely respond to an emergency, a brigade further away will have to respond on our behalf. A slower response time means your home, business, and even your life, are at a greater risk in an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least four people are needed on a truck to respond to a callout \u2013 a driver, an officer and two firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently struggle to safely fully crew a fire truck and this is increasingly difficult during the day. If our volunteer numbers get any smaller, we risk losing our local brigade.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find out how to become a volunteer firefighter and the criteria visit: https:\/\/www.fireandemergency.nz\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The station averages 350 calls a year, making it one of the busiest in Northland, and Hutchinson said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16891,665,11429,1975,17517,50960,17909,3549,32878,2079,30616,27135,685,440,19475,3180,111,43,139,1067,69,384,29158,4491,5034,7192,14182,14005,6382,8528,7571,50961,26697,686,3608,1316],"class_list":["post-62228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-able","tag-around","tag-arrive","tag-at","tag-because","tag-brigade","tag-chiefs","tag-crash","tag-engine","tag-fire","tag-kaikohe","tag-lack","tag-last","tag-local","tag-minutes","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-putting","tag-respond","tag-response","tag-risk","tag-shortage","tag-times","tag-took","tag-trapped","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteers","tag-warn","tag-week","tag-were","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}