The Fire Service says it has flexibility within its baseline budget of $316m to manage the cost of the two Canterbury earthquakes without impacting on its service to the public.  The total cost is expected to be around $9m with the final costs of the Urban Search and Rescue teams’ deployment to Japan yet to be determined.

 

The Fire Service is a Crown entity, funded by a levy on fire insurance cover.  National Commander Mike Hall said the organisation is an emergency service and as such it manages the cost of all emergencies as business-as-usual.

 

"While the costs have been higher this year than was budgeted for, we are able to take a number of different steps to ensure there is no change to the level of service we provide to communities around New Zealand.  And we will be continuing with our capital expenditure programme, which is important for a modern emergency service," he said.