Jason Hill is an Assistant Commander, for Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay District, with responsibility for Hastings coastal / Heretaunga plains area.
He is a Member of the Institution of Fire Engineers (MIFireE) and has been an active member of the New Zealand Branch for 14 years including serving as Secretary for the Otago/Southland Group, Branch Councillor, Executive Director for three years before moving to President in January 2022 and now to Immediate Past President. He also currently serves as the Leader of the IFE International General Assembly.
Jason has been involved in the fire industry for over 35 years and started his career as a fire firefighter in Dunedin in 1996. His career has continued focusing on the built environment, including spending several years as a specialist fire investigator. More recently he has spent time working in the natural environment in both a response, and risk identification capacity. His current role is a combination of response focus along with ensuring that new construction within the Heretaunga plains meets the requirements of Fire and Emergency New Zealand, in relation to access and firefighting operations.
Outside of the BAU role he is certified as an Australian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC) National Resource Sharing centre (NRSC) Deployment Manager. The role of Deployment Manager is to act in a national coordination role, supporting the planned or actual deployment of Australasian resources across New Zealand, Australia, and North America. Jason is also part of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Emergency Management Assistance Team (EMAT) this role entails being able to be immediately deployed (pre or post event) into disaster areas to provide specialist IMT support.