It’s a big fleet. Highly visible too. And yet….to most truckies it’s probably a bit of a mystery just how many fire trucks are actually in service. 

Obviously, there are enough of them that they’re spread all over the country – providing fire and emergency services to all New Zealanders.

But (thankfully), even given that their role can include cleaning up after crashes on our highways, it’s not as if they’re seen out on the roads constantly – like most large truck fleets.

So….how many? Okay, Fire and Emergency New Zealand national manager – fleet,  Mike Moran, runs out the numbers: Right now there are 1240 fire trucks and specialist response vehicles across the country.

Between them, they respond to more than 80,000 emergencies a year.

And yes, since July 2017, they have all been part of just the one national fleet – for the first time since NZ’s earliest firefighters ran to fires, pulling carts with firefighting equipment behind them.

For 150 years fire service organisations have been at the heart of NZ communities – dedicated to protecting the population from fire and other emergencies and their devastating consequences.

Until four years ago – when Fire and Emergency NZ was established under legislation to unite the nation’s fire services in one integrated fire and emergency services entity – there were over 40 rural and urban firefighting organisations.

Gallery