The community served by Otago firefighters will not be hampered by restructuring, one of the region's top firefighters says.
Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne announced yesterday funding of $303million would be put into combining the New Zealand Fire Service, National Rural Fire Authority and the fire functions of over 40 rural fire authorities to become Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
Legislation would be introduced within the next three months.
The merger was a positive one, East Otago area commander Laurence Voight, of Dunedin, said yesterday.
"They still haven't worked out the structure ... but as far as services to communities go, ... it should enhance service delivery.
"That should give us a better opportunity to streamline service delivery [and] it will have a more efficient management of rural and New Zealand fire services when they are combined.
"There's communities right now that could be better served by rural fire authorities and vice versa,'' Mr Voight said.
Job losses and restructuring were unclear, but he was confident firefighters would keep their present roles, he said.
"We're in a bit of a dearth of information ourselves right now.
"I shouldn't imagine that it will mean any change as far as troops on the ground go because at the end of the day the people that are doing the job right now, particularly volunteers, are the standing army, so we still rely on those people no matter what banner they respond under,'' he said.
The merger will take effect from July 1, 2017.
