The firefighters union wants answers following the discovery of asbestos at a central Auckland fire station.
The station at 40 Pitt St was closed on last night. Staff and vehicles were unable to enter and firefighters received precautionary decontamination.
Professional Firefighters Union vice president Martin Campbell said the discovery meant the specialist fire trucks there would be unavailable, pending testing to confirm the building was free of asbestos.
"This raises once again, many questions of the Fire and Emergency policy and procedures, and its executive management and leadership that can allow this to happen."
The union intended to ask more questions in coming days, he said.
Crews working today were instructed to report for duty at the regional headquarters, adjacent to the station at Poynton Tce.
Fire and Emergency NZ confirmed there was a second alarm "substance attendance" at the station.
In a statement, Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler said testing had revealed the unexpected asbestos.
"Fire and Emergency New Zealand is disappointed to learn of the positive results for asbestos in dust samples at our Pitt Street Station in Auckland as a result of testing in July 2025.
"This is a result we were not expecting. However, we have no reason to believe that there has been any further spread of asbestos beyond the initial rooms since it was removed in September 2024."
Precautionary air monitoring and swab testing around the station had been arranged and testing would take place on Saturday, Stiffler said.
"The safety and wellbeing of our firefighters is of the utmost importance to us and the station has been closed."
Not the first time asbestos found
Asbestos was found in the roof of the same station two years ago, which caused the station to close for tests and decontamination.
In 2021, WorkSafe assessed Auckland fire stations for asbestos and asked for surveys and management plans, but it remains unclear where these checks got to.
FENZ's 2021/22 annual report referred to asbestos once: "We... successfully managed our maintenance and modernisation programmes, which includes... asbestos management."
The incident also came just two days after a fire truck became stuck on Auckland's Ponsonby Road, after breaking down on its way to a fire.
The fire truck had to be towed.
Earlier this month, RNZ also reported that new fire trucks could not be used at rescues, as they were too small to fit all the lifesaving gear they needed to carry.
Fire and Emergency said it was "not ideal", but it was working on a solution. In the meantime, delivery of the trucks had been disrupted.
