Recorded histories of fire brigades in the early days of New Zealand are unfortunately very meagre, but from what information there is available it is known that several brigades were in existence 90 to 100 years ago. In Dunedin, for instance, a number of townspeople formed a volunteer fire brigade in 1861. Other early fire brigades were at Christchurch, Wellington, Greymouth, Hokitika, and Wanganui. These early brigades had little official standing and relied on contributions from the public, business houses, and the local authorities for the purchase of their equipment and uniforms. Equipment consisted largely of manually operated pumps, and later, when boroughs were reticulated with water, handdrawn hose reels.
The Municipal Corporation Acts of 1867, 1876, and 1900 contained provisions permitting borough councils to adopt measures for fire protection and the setting up of fire brigades in boroughs, but no similar provisions existed for fire protection in rural areas under the control of county councils. The first enactment devoted specifically to fire protection was the Fire Brigades Act of 1906, re-enacted in 1907 and consolidated in 1908. With the introduction of this Act, which provided for the constitution of fire districts and fire boards, the Government and fire insurance underwriters were recognised as having a responsibility in fire protection and were represented on and contributed to the expenditure of fire boards. A further Fire Brigades Act in 1926 consolidated the then existing legislation and remained in force until 1949. By 1946 there were 60 constituted fire districts, each with its own fire board and fire brigade, and financed by the Crown, local authority, and insurance underwriters.
In addition to the 60 fire brigades controlled by fire boards, there were also 99 fire brigades in boroughs which were not fire districts or within fire districts. These brigades were set up under authority of the Municipal Corporations Act 1920, which contained no provision for contributions from the Crown or the insurance companies, and the whole cost, therefore, had to be borne by the local authority.
In 1938 the then Inspector of Fire Brigades, R. Girling-Butcher, made the first moves towards amending the legislation with a view to providing an organisation for war and civil emergencies, and to improve the finances of the smaller fire brigades. Negotiations continued for several years, and it was not until 1949 that the Fire Services Act, under which the Service operates today, became effective.
The Fire Services Act 1949 provided for the establishment of a Fire Service Council representative of the Government, the New Zealand Fire Underwriters' Association, the Municipal Association, Fire Service employer and employee organisations, and the United Fire Brigades Association. There is provision for the Secretary for Internal Affairs to attend meetings of the Council. The first chairman of the Council (nominated by the Minister) was the late R. Girling-Butcher. The duty of the Council generally is to administer the Act and some of the specific duties named in the Act are:
To ensure that every urban fire authority conforms with the Act and maintains an efficient fire service.
To coordinate the units of the fire service for purposes of rural fire protection, reinforcement at serious fires, or for war or other emergencies.
To encourage, supervise, or carry out fire-prevention activities.
To establish a training school and courses of training.
To classify fire districts.
To classify positions in the fire service of permanent officers and provide facilities for inter-brigade promotions.
To approve appointments of permanent executive officers made by urban fire authorities.
To approve or determine estimates of expenditure of urban fire authorities.
To enable it to carry out these and other duties, the Council is required to appoint a Chief Fire Service Officer, a Secretary, and such other officers as it considers necessary. All such persons appointed by the Council are officers of the Public Service.
In 1965 there were 249 autonomous fire authorities each administering the affairs of an urban fire district, which may be a united fire district (larger municipalities), a fire district, or a secondary fire district (small boroughs or county towns). In each district there is a fire brigade with a chief fire officer, deputy chief fire officer, and such other officers and firemen as are required to afford the necessary standard of protection. There are 24 fire authorities employing paid staff and usually referred to as permanent fireman, as opposed to the volunteer firemen who man the remaining 225 fire brigades. The 803 permanent firemen, whose conditions of employment are governed by industrial awards, operate under a duty system of 24 hours on duty, followed by 24 hours off duty, with six weeks' annual leave. Some 6,000 volunteer firemen are volunteers in the true sense of the word, but in some brigades receive a token payment for attendances at fires and drills.
The year 1954 saw the beginning of the Fire Services Coordination Scheme for rural fire protection and operation at emergency fires. With the introduction of that scheme it became mandatory for fire brigades to attend all property fires within 5 road miles of their fire stations, whether or not such fires were within their gazetted fire districts, the cost of such attendances to be recovered from the rural local authority in whose territory the fires occur. Outside the gazetted urban fire district, all fires other than property fires (i.e., grass, scrub, forest fires, etc.) remain the responsibility of the rural local authority, which is a rural fire authority under the Forest and Rural Fires Act 1947. For operations at serious fires there is provision for mutual assistance between neighbouring brigades, and for emergencies there is the Regional Mobilising Scheme. For the purposes of this scheme the whole of New Zealand is divided into 16 regions, each under the control of a regional officer, who in each case is the chief fire officer of the principal fire brigade in the region. The regional officer is responsible for providing reinforcements for fires beyond the scope of the mutual assistance scheme, and for that purpose has the right to call on all brigades within his region, but at the same time has a responsibility to ensure that no town is left unprotected. Provision is made for regional control to revert to a designated secondary control, should regional control for any reason become inoperative. Should it be necessary to seek assistance from outside any one region, mobilising then comes under the control of the Council's Chief Fire Service Officer.
The headquarters of the Fire Service (the offices of the Fire Service Council) is at Island Bay, Wellington, where is situated also the Fire Service Training School, a residential school which was opened on 11 March 1958.
by Thomas Arthur Varley, O.B.E., M.I.FIRE.E., formerly Chief Fire Service Officer, Wellington.