Volunteer Firefighters

[journeyman Mick]

Buzzer
as you've probably found, the Rural Fire Service (or QFRS, rural operations, as it's now known) is chronically understaffed and underfunded. The district training officer should have contacted your brigade to let you know that you could get RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) for your past experience if you had done the old level one course. Unfortunately this expired a while ago, before Christmas I think.

BTW, did you know that QFRS has found almost $1M per year to pay for seven new positions (regional manager). The district inspectors will report to the new regional manager, but the regional manager will live in the same offices as the Assistant commisioner (urban) for that region. The regional manager is outranked by the A.Commisioner, but will supposedly report to the A. Commisioner (Rural) back in Brisbane.

I think we can all see where this is going, can't we? It wouldn't surprise me at all if the position of Assistant Commisioner, Rural Operations is made redundant in the not too distant future and the old Rural Fire Service is swallowed up completely. Oh, and I've also heard a whisper that Cockies Brigades like yours (can never remember what the category numbers are, I use the term with no disrespect) will miss out almost completely as far as equipment subsidies are concerned. Things are not looking good and if you can find the time and energy I'd be starting to ask some hard questions and writing some letters if I were you.

I think the public would be quite shocked at the raw deal volunteers are getting and it's going to get worse.

Mick

[savage]

NSW Fire Brigades
Retained Auxillary
Firefighter/Motor driver
Service 7 1/2yrs (retired)
Ingleburn, Stn 79
Involved in the '94 Sydney bush fires, numerous school fires, too many MVA'S and a lot of house fires, plus the odd suicide. Some unhappy memories, but a lot of good one's and a couple of good mates.

P.S. I take my hat off to the "Bushies", they are worth there weight in gold!...

[JDarvall]

Shore is getting worse.

Personally think the term 'volunteers' should be removed from the system altogether.

Can't just be motivated to attend a fire, on the buzz of driving fast to a fire.......or....... 'doing my part for the community' ....just for that warm feeling you get.

Just not realistic for many. Should be some kind of pay....even if its just $5 hour... Something. Some would argue that I'd imagine that the money just can't be raised to pay firemen....(shrug)

I suppose what annoys me is the incredibly long hours the more active members put in with little return......then you see some local business man pull up in his mercedes beside the firemans beatup ute....in a suit....walks into a cafe for a capaccino.....soft hands.... good chance he's done little volenteer work......I'm generalizing a bit I know. But theres something wrong about that.

Turning up at insurance cons too is annoying. Volenteering my day to put out say a shed because the bloke prefers the insurance.

[Mattsplatt]

Never knew that area was settled so early.

Yeah ! At least that old!!!!

The issue of the old bridge and it's ultimate demise (preferred by certain sectors to be a lot earlier than later) has been the paramount argument point here for years!!

Mind you, great wharf timber one day!!!

[Felder]

Due to work I really only go out in the middle of night to idiots that forget that their cars are meant to stay upright on the black stuff, a few house fires and anything that may pop up on a weekend.

In our area we choose if we want to attend incidents like MVA's. Not on a case-to-case basis, of course, but we tell the district office that we aren't interested.
We figure that there are quite a few salaried firefighters (NSWFB) in the Blue Mountains, and they can deal with that sort of icky stuff.
In other areas, it seems as though MVA's are 90% of the call outs that a Brigade gets.

And the only time we go to a structural fire is if it caught alight from a bushfire.

So there are usually only a few incidents a year for us, but we go out of area a bit. Got asked if I wanted to go to Orange for a few days (Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon) but had to say no cos if I go I'll miss the Friday thread.

[Mattsplatt]

Unfortunately, even though the nearest city (geelong) is only 30ks away, we are always first on seen and the permanents that 'man' the heavy rescue unit are also called.

As I am not overly keen on the Ickky things, I look after the fire side of things which fortunately usually means making sure the traffic keeps away from us and the ambos. There are times when your first aid certificate not being recognised by the CFA is a really good thing!

On another note we just had some dumbwit light 20+ fires up and down the coast area , a good public stoning should be brought back for these people when they're caught! (might contravene the Geneva convention, but who doesn't these days???)

[Buzzer]

Buzzer
as you've probably found, the Rural Fire Service (or QFRS, rural operations, as it's now known) is chronically understaffed and underfunded. The district training officer should have contacted your brigade to let you know that you could get RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) for your past experience if you had done the old level one course. Unfortunately this expired a while ago, before Christmas I think.

BTW, did you know that QFRS has found almost $1M per year to pay for seven new positions (regional manager). The district inspectors will report to the new regional manager, but the regional manager will live in the same offices as the Assistant commisioner (urban) for that region. The regional manager is outranked by the A.Commisioner, but will supposedly report to the A. Commisioner (Rural) back in Brisbane.

I think we can all see where this is going, can't we? It wouldn't surprise me at all if the position of Assistant Commisioner, Rural Operations is made redundant in the not too distant future and the old Rural Fire Service is swallowed up completely. Oh, and I've also heard a whisper that Cockies Brigades like yours (can never remember what the category numbers are, I use the term with no disrespect) will miss out almost completely as far as equipment subsidies are concerned. Things are not looking good and if you can find the time and energy I'd be starting to ask some hard questions and writing some letters if I were you.

I think the public would be quite shocked at the raw deal volunteers are getting and it's going to get worse.

Mick

Mick,

Thanks for the information.

More beauricrats, just what we don't need.

As far as equipment subsidies go, the Gov't has been good to date. If subsidies go there will be no new/replacement equipment bought or even maintained in our brigade.
As for getting involved with politics/ beaurocracy I will leave that to those who have the fire in the belly!!
Cheers,

Buzzer

[Felder]

And the only time we go to a structural fire is if it caught alight from a bushfire.

I don't know why I go saying things like that.

Got a call out last night to a structural fire. "That's odd", thinks my brain as I am speeding to the Station.

I'm the first one there and ring Control to find out where we're going. It was a neighbouring Fire Station that was alight. No wonder they were throwing everyone at it!

Copped extensive roof damage and limited damage to the kitchen and bathrooms. Lost a mezzanine floor that housed most of the BA gear. Luckily there were some members training at the time and managed to get their two appliances out (approx $250k each) before getting a good start on the fire. I would hate to think what would have happened if the Station was unattended.

Oh, and for the record, it looks like an electrical fault was the ignition.

I'm just glad it wasn't our Station.

A burning Fire Station - is this irony?

[journeyman Mick]

Brendan,
Good thing the station was manned at the time.

Sometime back in the late '70s/early 80s there was a station on the pacific highway near Hornsby. It was located on a busy right angled corner (Pierce's corner?) A fully loaded petrol tanker failed to make the turn and smashed into the fire station pretty much burning it to the ground . One of the blokes that's in our rural brigade was actually an urban stationed there but he wasn't on shift at the time.

I have an obsession about making sure everyone winds the windows up when leaving our truck. I can't think of anything more embaressing (or potentially dangerous) than finding the upholstery of the truck alight when you return to it.


Mick

[Munga]

As Mick said there is to much being put on our volunteers and we are losing them in droves, I have been involved for 25 yrs. with 8 yrs. as 1st. officer and due to wifes ill health I cauld not guarentee being available for call outs and training.

I took on the Wardens job as without one the brigade would be disbanded and all our equipment taken by Emergency Services. (if you think it's hard getting normal volunteers try getting one to take on the Wardens job)

Now because I have not kept up my training upgrades I (legally) can't attend a fire and if I turn up must be ordered to leave the the fire area, but they can't have a training fire or controlled burn unless I say so.

It's because of situations like this that the average bloke does not want to get involved for example we have farmers who have been fighting fires for 40yrs and, for arguments sake, can't attend a fire on their neighbours property.

The Emergency Services will run out of volunteers if they keep going they way they are.

Rant over Arch.

[Mattsplatt]

I think it's interesting following this thread to see that the number of people commenting on the "powers that be" taking over and placing excessive demands on volunteers etc. As a recent addition to the volunteer world of CFA, I was really impressed with the attention to training and more so safety. We have a policy of safety first with everything that we do which I think is great! And after the disaster of the Linton fires (several firies killed) here in Vic back in the nineties, even the guys who had been in the CFA for 30+ years had to be "re-trained" and certified. Now this was a major pain in the proverbial for them, but it meant an even playing field as far as SOPs were concerned and therefore if Joe Blow from elsewhere was on a different truck with a different crew, if the proverbial hit the fan everyone would know exactly what to do.

I think it is human nature to whinge a bit about all and sundry, but as Munga said, not only are we losing Vols in droves, it is hard to recruit more. I am not sure if it is a cultural thing (let's face it, Australians by nature are very community focused and keen to help out!!!). I am just a firefighter, not an officer, no other roles and responsibilities other than train and put the wet stuff on the red stuff, but that can mean on an 'average' week about 10hours of time and when it gets busy - double that! I know that our Captain and many of the officers regularly put 20-30 hours in a week, plus making calls on their personal phones, petrol etc going to meetings or whatever. This is substantial when you have family, work etc commitments.

Out of interest what sort of hours do people give to their volunteer work on average in a week???

[Felder]

Out of interest what sort of hours do people give to their volunteer work on average in a week???

I tabled 359 hrs last year. Most of that was in admin, but a fair bit of training and the occasional incident.
That didn't include meetings, of which there were 20 odd.

I know there are some problems in the QRFS at the moment. I've seen the e-mail Mick sent to the brass.

NSW RFS however just seems to be going from strength to strength. There will always be that bureaucratical nastiness in any organisation as large as this one, but on the whole, I reckon it's not too bad. We also struggle to get volunteers. We have to do 12 hour shifts in the field due to a lack of available firefighters, but that is more a local problem.

The NSW RFS gets more and more money off the State Government and spend it merrily on shiny new trucks and aircraft and other more basic equipment. I would have to say that I feel well supported by the RFS. Our town has a population of less than 1,000, but we've still got a $250,000 truck.

[AlexS]

Sometime back in the late '70s/early 80s there was a station on the pacific highway near Hornsby. It was located on a busy right angled corner (Pierce's corner?) A fully loaded petrol tanker failed to make the turn and smashed into the fire station pretty much burning it to the ground . One of the blokes that's in our rural brigade was actually an urban stationed there but he wasn't on shift at the time.

I remember when that happenned Mick. It's not Pierces Cnr, it's just up from there, opposite Barker. After the fire, it was a servo for a while. It's currently a vacant block, but I think it will soon be units.
It's not a corner I'd like to live on, there've been a few efforts at high-speed parking there.

[Mattsplatt]

NSW RFS however just seems to be going from strength to strength. There will always be that bureaucratical nastiness in any organisation as large as this one, but on the whole, I reckon it's not too bad. We also struggle to get volunteers. We have to do 12 hour shifts in the field due to a lack of available firefighters, but that is more a local problem.

Funny how you get used to things! I was gobsmacked with the bureaucracy and 'personal agendas' with the first meetings I attended - almost scared me off completely, now in 12months I am so used to it all that when a 1 hour meeting doesn't go for 3 hours I think something is wrong! All in all the system seems to run well and the esprit de corps is very strong despite personality conflicts etc.

It is intertesting that within what seemed like only moments from the outbreak of the big fires here this season, there were calls from all and sundry to find someone to blame. That bugs me! I agree that trying to find the root cause of an issue is essential, but so many people from so many sectors just wanted someone to hang for it - especially when the power went down in Melbourne on a 38degree day.

Oh well....

[forunna]

Byford volunteer firebrigade.
southern outskirts of Perth in WA.
4 years.

we have been getting more emphasis on the need for formal training the last few years, I did 10 years in SES before this and the same has been happening there.

sounds like its not as serious as the RFS and CFA though.
got a mate in RFS, says the same things Im reading here.