The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) said on Saturday Dunedin’s central fire station would not have enough staff to crew a frontline fire appliance if there were to be a blaze in the central business district.
"Dunedin is without their frontline fire truck today - no firefighters to crew the No 1 truck in the city," it wrote on Twitter.
Attached was a composite photograph with a raging fire, a fire truck, and the words, "Dunedin CBD without cover".
However, the post no longer appears on the union’s Twitter page while other posts claiming insufficient staffing levels elsewhere in the country remain.
Yesterday, Fenz assistant area commander Craig Geddes said he was advised by the NZPFU the social media post was put up in error and had been taken down at the request of the union’s local president.
"I can confirm that we are currently six firefighters over our agreed establishment numbers," he said in response.
"We are experiencing seasonal absences in relation to sickness, which is typical and not unusual for the winter period and this is proactively managed.
"There is no reduction in firefighting capability to the Dunedin CBD or delayed response to any incident type throughout the Dunedin district."
Dunedin union president Antony Mason said a four-person truck had been unable to roll from 8am to 6pm on Saturday because of staffing levels, but there had been no major callouts at the time.
The situation had been brought about by sickness, or "bad luck", rather than the lack of recruitment that was happening elsewhere in New Zealand.
He confirmed the post had been taken down and said while Dunedin had the lowest sickness rates in the country, the staffing situation nevertheless cropped up periodically.
Since recent industrial action ended there had been pro-active recruitment in the district and there was at present "no issue" in recruiting firefighters in the district.
Including the "yellow watch" at Mosgiel, there were more than 100 firefighters at Willowbank, Roslyn, Lookout Point, St Kilda and Dunedin City stations.
He agreed with Mr Geddes there had been no reduction in firefighting capability in Dunedin at the weekend.
