Most of us are now well and truly into the 2017 year. I know many of you had a chance to relax over Christmas and January, while others were busier than
ever.
It has been a quiet summer to date with expectations in some parts of the state still anticipating later in February and March to be our challenging times with regard to larger fires.
Fingers crossed this doesn’t eventuate
but as ever I know CFA Brigades will rise to whatever challenge confronts us.
VFBV has received dozens of calls from volunteers concerned about recent media reports revealing that the Victorian Government may secretly be considering restructuring CFA to create a volunteer-only service for rural Victoria and a new body to include all paid firefighters to service
metropolitan/urban areas and regional centres.
VFBV has had no contact from CFA or Government regarding such a restructure and there has been no consultation on this topic since the Victorian State Government Fire Services Review conducted in 2015. In response to that independent review of the Victorian Fire Services, the current Government confirmed that
CFA and MFB would not be amalgamated at any level. That review provided a road map and commitment to consult with VFBV and volunteers on a number of key future directions issues, but much of this work has not yet commenced. For anyone to now be secretly and arbitrarily talking about major structural change without working through the issues and process identified by the Fire Services Review would be bizarre; a slap in the face for volunteers and an absolute abandonment of the obligations
set down in the CFA Volunteer Charter.
VFBV would be concerned with any change to the current CFA integrated service model or structural change to the fire service that diminishes volunteer capacity generally and in particular any change that erodes CFA volunteer capacity in outer metropolitan Melbourne and regional
centres.
CFA volunteers from outer metropolitan Melbourne and regional centres are vital to Victoria’s surge capacity for major fires and other emergencies. Any change that diminishes CFA volunteer capacity will not only mean significant cost, but will also mean that Victoria will not have the firefighting capacity required to respond to major bushfires and
other disasters.
CFA’s own turnout data shows that any normal summer can mean hundreds of incidents a day, calling on thousands of firefighters at any one time, requiring CFA Brigades to maintain service delivery in the local patch and at the same time drawing on the enormous pool of ready, trained volunteers to deploy across the state (and often interstate) to
major events. The same data also shows that as major fires occur and/or continue for days on end, up to 40% of the firefighting resources need to be drawn from volunteer Brigades in the greater metropolitan Melbourne area and regional provincial centres.
As an example, over four days in mid-February 2013, CFA responded to 695 incidents with more than 2,500
trucks in the field, many from the greater Melbourne area.
The map below uses CFA turnout data from that time to show crews responding to major, simultaneous fires at Donnybrook, Harrietville and Aberfeldy. The yellow lines show the dependence on predominantly volunteer crews from metro Melbourne. Of 103 Brigades at the Donnybrook fire, 69 were
from outer Melbourne, and of 915 CFA personnel deployments, 711 were from the metro area, 98% of them volunteers.
For now, Minister Merlino has said that talk of any structural change to the fire services or any change to the current CFA model is mere speculation. If we are to take the Minister’s comments on face value, we can take his word to mean
that there is no plan to announce a change.
Along with volunteers across Victoria, we will be watching this space very carefully and will advise Brigades if we hear any more.
Any enhancements that strengthen volunteer capacity and
Victoria’s firefighting capacity will certainly be embraced and we look forward to working actively with Government, CFA, EMV or whoever, on such changes. At the same time, we have a duty to highlight and seek to avoid any changes that intentionally or unintentionally erode volunteer capacity or Victoria’s capacity to deal with the frequent occurrence of major and concurrent long duration fires experienced most summers.
For now, we should keep our focus on protecting our communities and as opportunity presents have a chat with decision-makers and your local community networks, MPs and other community leaders to ensure they understand why the current CFA service model in Melbourne’s outer metropolitan areas is absolutely fundamental to Victoria having the capacity to mobilise the large numbers of highly trained volunteer
firefighters required for peak load and surge capacity associated with major state-level emergencies, including bushfires.
