At the big Burnham and Linton military camps, it still has its emergency responders on reduced hours.
This was the case on May 8, the night a teenager died in a fire at a Defence house at Burnham.
It was reported earlier that Fire and Emergency (FENZ) went to the blaze instead of Defence Force responders, and got there within its time target of 11 minutes.
"No evidence or circumstances have come to light that warrant an internal investigation or review into the incident," Defence told RNZ on Thursday.
Email trails released under the Official Information Act to RNZ show a commanding officer at Burnham had asked about the state of Defence's depleted fire crews, late last year.
It was "currently losing more personnel than it is gaining" and had not recruited to cover all dozen vacant positions for 2024.
Responders were leaving to join FENZ, or because of "unsustainable shift patterns".
To try to stabilise things, the fire crews at the camps were stood down for a month in December-January, then went on reduced hours.
That remained the case, with them covering daytime hours, Monday to Friday, in line with its agreement with FENZ, Defence said.
FENZ covers the camps outside of that time.
An insurance adviser told the Burnham commander that FENZ monitored the fire alarms.
"FENZ would respond and would know the location of a fire but it is possible that those on the base would not be aware of a fire's location."
