Fire and Emergency received calls to 17 incidents during today's strike

Fire and Emergency New Zealand received calls for 17 incidents between 12pm - 1pm today, Friday 21 November, the time of the strike action by members of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU).

Of these, eight incidents were in areas impacted by the strike.

Four of these incidents were in response to fire alarms. The remaining incidents related to two motor vehicle crashes, a hedge fire and a small fire in a rubbish truck.

Our volunteers responded as normal to incidents within their brigade areas.

Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler thanked New Zealanders for their extra care during the strike hour.

"Thank you to our more than 11,000 volunteers across the country, and their employers for supporting them to respond over today's strike hour.

"I would also like to thank our Operational Commanders and Communication Centre Managers, who contributed to the response.

"We are disappointed that the NZPFU has issued further strike notices for one-hour strikes at 12pm on 28 November and 5 December.

"I urge the NZPFU to withdraw these latest strike notices and not issue any more, so we can get back around the bargaining table while we wait for our application for facilitation to be considered.

"This is in the best interests of our people, and New Zealand's communities.

"Fire and Emergency's goal is, and has always been, to reach a fair, sustainable, and reasonable settlement with the NZPFU. We are bargaining in good faith and doing everything we can to achieve an agreement without disrupting the services communities rely on."