The 146^th Annual General Meeting and conference of the United Fire Brigades Association will take place in Christchurch this weekend. The United Fire Brigades Association is one of New Zealand’s largest voluntary organisations, and over 600 delegates will attend the weekend’s events.

The United Fire Brigades Association (UFBA) represents the country’s more than 12,000 urban and rural volunteer firefighters and emergency workers. Volunteers account for around 86% of all firefighters and cover 93% of the national landmass. That means most New Zealanders, whether they live in large cities, towns or small rural communities are covered by volunteer firefighters, and that the firefighters they see out and about in their communities are most likely to be volunteers. When Guy Fawkes night occurs next week, volunteer firefighters across the country will be on standby to deal with any incidents that might arise.

567 of the New Zealand’s 647 fire stations are fully volunteer, a further 34 are operated jointly with employed firefighters, leaving just 46 stations, principally in the heart of the main centres, operated entirely by employed staff. Volunteers are the first responders to 42% of all structure fires, 70% of all motor vehicle accidents, 71% of all medical emergencies, and 85% of all vegetation fires.

They also play an increasingly important role in responding to natural disasters. For example, much of the response to the cyclones that devastated the upper North and East Coast of the North Island last year was led by volunteer firefighters. Sadly, the two emergency response workers who were killed responding to the cyclones were volunteer firefighters.

Earlier this year, the UFBA’s Board commissioned a report from Esperance Capital on the monetary value of the contribution volunteer firefighters make to fire and emergency services around the country. According to Esperance Capital, that value was $823 million in the year to June 2023. Significantly, the report showed that the value of the contribution of volunteers has been increasing – up just over 16% from the $619 million figure assessed in 2019, the last time such a study was undertaken.

The immediate conclusion from the Esperance Capital report and the increasing contribution of volunteer firefighters is that New Zealand’s emergency services could not survive without them. Nor, given the breadth of that contribution, could any government ever afford to replace volunteers with fully employed staff.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand – the operational body which manages fire and emergency services throughout New Zealand – the government, and the wider community need to take this point on board. Right now, the government is considering various reports commissioned after the cyclones about the best organisational response to similar events in the future.

To date, there has been no discussion with the UFBA about the contribution of volunteer firefighters in such circumstances, despite the reality that without their active involvement, New Zealand lacks the resources and the personnel for any form of effective response to natural disasters. Ignoring what volunteers may have to say seems extremely blinkered and short-sighted.

The commitment and skill of New Zealand’s volunteer firefighters is recognised world-wide. When teams of firefighters go to assist fighting major bush or forest fires in places like Australia or Canada, most of the participants are volunteers, leaving their families and taking time off from their day jobs to do so. New Zealand’s fire and urban rescue services received a special United Nations commendation for their work, again heavily involving volunteers, in the wake of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

As the chair of the UFBA’s Board, I hear often of the respect that the public has for our volunteer firefighters. At the same time, many people are still amazed to learn that most firefighters in our cities and towns are volunteers, because of the quality of the public service they provide. I regard this as a tribute to their professionalism and commitment to service, and it is little wonder that they rank amongst our most highly respected public services.

In many ways, volunteer firefighters typify community life in New Zealand. It has been often said that the two best ways to get known in a new community are to join the local volunteer fire brigade, or the school committee. Our volunteers come from all walks of life, and backgrounds. The resilience of the UFBA over the last almost 150 years stems from this. This weekend’s events will be an opportunity to both recall and celebrate past achievements, and to focus on the challenges the ever-changing world of emergency services will pose in the future.

But while the delegates gather, the country’s 567 volunteer stations and the 34 joint volunteer/employed staff stations will still remain on call to meet their community’s needs, just as they are, every hour of every day throughout the year, since the first volunteer brigades were established 146 years ago.