National Headquarters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
National Headquarters
Spark Central, Level 7
42-52 Willis Street
Wellington Central
Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 496 3600
29 January 2025
Ref: 16761
Harwood Wilson
[FYI request #29736 email] Tēnā koe Harwood
Thank you for your request of 13 January 2025, to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting
information relating to Castle Hill and Lake Coleridge. Your request has been considered under the
Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) and our response is below.
1. Do FENZ consider the equipment (incl. vehicles and property) satisfy the risk of these
community's?
Fire and Emergency consider that the equipment at Castle Hill and Lake Coleridge satisfies the risk
in these communities.
We have a component of the Springfield Volunteer Fire Brigade based in Castle Hill and a
component of the Hororata Volunteer Fire Brigade based in Lake Coleridge. Both of these small
groups of volunteers are supported by the Canterbury Risk Reduction Team with fire prevention
activities within their community.
In remote communities such as these, risk reduction is key to ensuring safer communities, as our
response to incidents is governed by the availability of volunteers. In general, all brigades (and any
auxiliary component) have equipment suited to the authorised volunteer’s capacity for response
and current training, and they are always supported by a pre-planned response from other nearby
career and Volunteer Fire Brigades.
2.
Do FENZ have any plans or thoughts to make changes or upgrades to the equipment (incl.
vehicles and property) at these brigades?
At present, there are no plans to upgrade the capability for Castle Hill. However, our ability to
meet our obligations under the Fire and Emergency Act 2017 at Castle Hill is reviewed periodically.
At Lake Coleridge, Fire and Emergency has been advised we need to vacate our current site by
26 July 2025 due to the lease agreement coming to an end. We are currently working through
options on how we will continue to provide support to the Lake Coleridge volunteers and the
community.
We trust that the information being provided is of assistance. If you require further information,
please email [FENZ request email].
Nāku noa, nā
Aidan Saunders
Manager, Information Requests
