International Firefighters Day, which is held on May 4 each year, was instituted after the deaths of five firefighters who perished while fighting a bushfire in Linton, Australia in 1999.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Station Officer Peter Hessian said the job was about a lot more than fighting fires.
"It’s about community service for me ... It’s what we’re here for."
He had been at the job for 38 years and loved his chosen career, he said.
Firefighters were an international community, and whenever something happened around the world other firefighters would be aware of it.
Most recently, firefighters in Ukraine were still doing their work despite bombs going off.
Despite saving lives every day, firefighters tended to be pretty self-effacing, Mr Hessian said.
"We just do our job — we’re not out there for pats on the back."
Since he started, the job had changed a lot.
The role now involved a lot of rescues and medical co-responses.
"Fires are actually a rarity, but that’s still why we’re here."
Things had changed a lot over his career, he said.
Not that long ago firefighters would attend awful scenes and basically get told to "take a teaspoon of cement and harden up".
Those days were in the past and the level of support firefighters received had increased tremendously, Mr Hessian said.
