Fire and Emergency New Zealand has axed the only paid fire support role on Great Barrier Island, a move internal documents admit will actually cost more.
The decision to replace an on-island manager with commuting mainland staff has left locals reeling, with Great Barrier local board chair Izzy Fordham saying the community is “pretty devastated” by the cut.
“To me, it just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not making sense to our volunteer fire committee, and it’s certainly not making sense to the community,” she said.
The April 24 cancellation strips the island of a crucial manager with vital local knowledge of complex terrain, fire breaks, and hidden paper roads.
That knowledge was critical during the massive January 2013 bushfire, which ripped through more than 100 hectares near Claris and required a heavily integrated response.
Fordham said relying on mainland management for a remote island is a mistake.
“It’s a really vital role for the island, and there seems to be some thinking within the higher management of FENZ that it can be run from the mainland… but that’s not really going to work that well,” she said.
Since 2000, The Barrier’s 50 volunteer firefighters have relied on a paid, part-time local officer.
FENZ justified the cut by pointing to low incident data, claiming an average of just two structure fires and five medical callouts a year.
Voluntary chief fire officer Wayne Anderson said those numbers ignore volunteer responses to floods, paramedic support, and years of local fire prevention work.
“It’s going to affect our risk reduction plans definitely because they’ll be flying someone over who nobody knows,” Mr Anderson said.
“We’re a small community, everyone knows everyone, and respect is big, but a stranger going to a house, putting in a smoke alarm, is not going to happen.”
He warned that the island’s extreme isolation means it must be properly resourced on the ground.
“Especially in a severe weather event or a tsunami, we’re going to be on our own for quite a few days,” he said.
“In Gabrielle, the airport was closed for two days, and we had no ferry for a week. The island was cut off into four pieces because of landslides and flooding.”
He questioned how off-island management would cope in a real crisis.
“When things escalate, where are these resources, how are these resources going to get here?”
Internal FENZ advice conceded that flying staff to The Barrier would be more expensive and less practical than retaining the local role.
Mr Anderson said relying on flights makes mainland support a dangerous gamble.
“… we do get a lot of cancellations because of weather, and sometimes you’ve spent a long time in the airport waiting for the fog to clear, waiting for the rain to clear,” he said.
A FENZ spokesperson claimed the decision was not made due to cost, adding that mainland specialists will likely visit the island on a monthly schedule.
