However, when he was assistant area manager of the Wairarapa/Hutt district, a firefighter suffered a serious cut to his hand when glass from a broken window went through his glove. "He was off work for a wee while."
Of the country's 1789 full-time and 8371 volunteer firefighters, 448 were injured in 2011 - with $1.2 million in injury-related costs.
The Fire Service responded to 68,000 callouts last year.
New Zealand Fire Service spokeswoman Karlum Lattimore said the organisation had "robust" systems to respond to accidents or near-misses. "If there's something wrong with some piece of equipment or something, we get on to that pretty quickly."
Ms Lattimore said the latest alert was around brass couplings stolen by scrap metal thieves from fire hose connections on commercial buildings. A replacement aluminium coupling subsequently burst. No-one was injured but protocols were put in place to prevent it happening again.
Older occupational injuries which rarely happened these days included smoke inhalation, burns and broken ankles from firemen's poles, she said.
"They'd come screaming down the poles and break their ankles ... that's why they don't use the poles any more."
There were 115 burns-related injuries recorded nationally last year - making it the 16th most common injury for firefighters. Seven of the recorded injuries happened at the Fire Service's national training centre - compared to 30 in 2009.
New Zealand Professional Firefighters' Union secretary Derek Best said firefighting was dangerous work, and injuries were relatively common.
However, the union had worked with the Fire Service to prevent and minimise the number of deaths and injuries on the job.
Contrary to popular belief, burns weren't the biggest risk to firefighters, rather "the insidious exposure to a lot of chemicals and the potential for that to cause cancers," he said. APNZ
By the numbers
37 career firefighters at Whanganui Fire Station.
Seven recorded injuries in the Whanganui fire fighting area in 2011, costing $44,548. Three resulted in time off work.
10 recorded injuries in 2010, costing $32,625. One resulted in time off work.
Nine recorded injuries in 2009, costing $34,841. One resulted in time off work.