General Discussion > Country Fire Service
ES Reform
CFS_fire32:
Pretty sure Mt Barker did... and they got told to go away and be quiet.
Can't ever see CFS having retained fire-fighters - would be too hard for them.
Moral of the story seems to be 1 Organisation, but still 3 Services. Can't see how this is going to save the $$$ the Government wants.
On a side note... why/what did Lyndoch CFS have to do a 5 year plan for?
Firedoc02:
It was their choice. The Brigade wanted to upgrade their station and appliances so they put a plan together and invited the Regional Commander to a meeting to discuss. The plan was based upon what they saw as their risk and how they would mitigate the risk. The plan was very sound and whilst the commander did not agree with everything, he saw merit in their process so agreed to work with them to progress the plan. The rest, as they say, is history.
CFS should'nt have retained. They should however have full time fire fighters working with volunteer firefighters in high risk or high turnout areas. Retained after all is only a volunteer who pockets a few dollars for his or her efforts, they still go to work and respond on pager same as volunteers. Retained's firefighters must attend a percentage of calls but this is not always possible. Some busy CFS brigades have the same comitment by their firefighters to attend a certain number of calls. I know of Retained Brigades who could not get a truck out of the station due to low numbers of firefighters that could not respond due to work commitments - fact of life, not a critisism
pumprescue:
Firedoc02
I don't mean to be rude, but you really have no idea what the Mt Barker guys have been through, and I personally know that every single thing that could be done was done, once you hit that brick wall and no one wants to work with you to improve, then you are left with no choice. The first thing that was done was the process Lyndoch undertook, that went nowhere.
Have you spoken with anyone from Mt Barker to find out whats happened from SFEC review til now?
Firedoc02:
Pumprescue, you are not being rude, we are having a chat between two equals.
No I haven't spoken directly with the Mt Barker crew nor anyone from Region 1 HQ but I do have some good contacts that are aware of what lead up to the current situation. Has CFS done it wrong - possibly, has some of Mt Barker folk done things wrong - possibly. Was the whole situation handled badly - Yes....
What matters to me is the protection of CFS volunteers and the service in general.
Why can't Mt Barker become a full time day crewed station 9-5 and 5 days a week being backed up by volunteers under the management of the CFS? We have a real good change to change CFS at the moment to something we all want. Go to a reform meeting with the Minister and tell him how CFS should be...
People forget that CFS is the volunteers and staff working together and the only way forward is to work together intelligently but persistently to get what we want.
pumprescue:
Maybe the volunteers don't want to remain with the CFS? Maybe the volunteers have taken the mature approach to work on a solution to move forward before they can no longer handle it, maybe the volunteers have decided that the town no longer fits the volunteer model with the lack of training, equipment, PPE, support, etc etc etc. When there are no other available options then maybe its time to move forward? This was not done on a whim, all options were exhausted by the volunteers and a suitable outcome couldn't be achieved so it was left up to SAFECOM to review the situation. So far the process has taken 12 months, so definitely not a knee jerk process. I would imagine that is rather persistent.
If you are worried about the volunteers, then shouldn't you be worrying about what the volunteers in this specific situation want, seems to me they are doing what they think is best for their community, if CFS aren't interested then what choice do they have? They aren't stupid, they know full well that it may mean they are no longer involved at all. So be it, still going to end up with better fire protection. So many people profess to have their community and volunteers interests at heart, but do they really, in a situation like this progress is the only option. A large portion of the members are just flabbergasted with how the paid staff have dealt with things, several won't be continuing either way, don't forget these people live and work in this town, they know what it needs.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version