SA Firefighter

A minor issue . . . . more a curiosity than anything.

If I open internet explorer, click on the drop-down box for the address bar and select SAFF, 99% of the time ie says the page is unavailable. However once I delete the; http://   then hit enter, everyone's happy.

No other webpages do this to me. Maybe it doesn't like me?!!

Bingo!

The 'attending every incident' could be tolerated, or even helpful, if it were in alphaone's context, but the fact that they assume command every time means that no brigade officers get experience in running an incident.

At the recent captain's seminar run by the region (where this topic seemed to be fairly common across a number of groups), it was suggested that small proceedural adherences could affect this - first arriving officer refer to themself as 'incident controller' on the grn. That assumes that comms calls the 'incident controller', not the most senior person on the scene (as seems to be default), and therefore requires a degree of formality in changing the incident controller. However it is largely irrelevant as the GO or DGOs are usually first on scene anyway.

It will come to a head shortly when someone retires and the complaint pops up 'but there's no one experienced enough to replace them'.

RescueHazmat makes a good point; why do they attend so many incidents?
Do they have no faith in the brigade officers? Do they like the excitement of lights and sirens?
In anwer to your simple question; yes. Why would two DGOs respond to an incident to which they only page one truck, and is suspected to be a false alarm?

I suspect the question has never been posed; 'why do you attend all incidents' and worked through, rather I can imagine the approach would (if at all) have been a little more direct.

I admire your optimism Firefrog!

We'd have two very knackered players and a lot of entertained spectators in our brigade. Good idea though!

Recruitment drive suggestion no 4; play BA soccer along the main street.

I don't think there's an easy answer. Twits like that will always be twits, unless they see something worthwhile done by you/your brigade.

The attitude (at least of those I've run in to who think like that), is generally born from an ignorance of what the CFS does. I don't bother trying to change their attitude anymore. Of the times they've asked what we do and I run off a list of jobs, they ask 'Why the f would you want to do that?' No community spirit, only worried about themselves.

Good on you for sticking it out in such a scheiße of a work place. Personally, I'd be keeping an eye out for a job elsewhere, but I've no idea about your situation.

Considering SAFF's poor/dwindling support in the region, I don't expect them to push it any harder than they have. Indeed, if they were going to, it would have happened by now.

5271 rescue – what exactly do you mean ‘it has not been released’?
The guidelines were released a while, & all SAFF  members received notification (but not a copy). Do you mean something else?

loopylou – do you mean the cards are issued to farmers, say at the start of the fire season (so maybe they have to sign up, so to speak) and the cards are kept by the farmer for the duration of the fire season?
Or do they log in at an incident?


Cooperation in this group seems the be rather non-existent. Despite the apparent directive some years ago, I can’t help but feel more doesn’t happen because it’s of no interest to the GO & DGOs. 

Some good ideas here though. Thanks folks. Do keep posting if your group is doing something that does/does not work.

Did anything helpful come of this topic??

I'm in a similar situation - need to get members a bit more proficient on the GRN.  As I see it, there are two sides; being comofortable using the GRN, and knowing what to say when you're on it.

Getting over the first bit shouldn't be too hard - we'll get people spread around the place and get them to read through a play, changing people with every line (that's the present plan anyway!).

What situations/training do people put their members in to encourage thinking about responses on the radio??

I'm aware there are manuals & grn training courses, but reading off a piece of paper doesn't help train people to give sit-reps etc.

As part of a strike team floating about on the Friday mopping up, I was very disappointed by the amount of rubbish left by firefighters.

Water bottles a plenty, even the odd box of lunch/dinner rubbish stuffed under a bit of corrugated iron. By the end of the day, the crew deck of our truck was full of rubbish we'd collected.

Why are people so lazy & careless? Disgusting.

An interesting point Pip. Are strike teams called in all too readily sometimes?

Certainly a question which got a good thrashing in our truck on the way up & back (we were wondering if the Lofty area crews were calling us in for payback, in regard to the trip they took to the south east for the Burrungle fire - arrived on the fire ground at 1900, spent the night trying to pick out the best christmas tree and went home the next day, as I understand it).

There seems to have been a pretty ordinary response from R5 to strike team requests of late. I'd like to say that people are always willing to help another region, but maybe that's not the case. If crews are going to travel for hours, do they want to feel like they're doing worthwhile & required work? (Oh yes, I know mopping up is worthwhile & required, but it's not quite as exciting or educational!)

I know our crews felt pretty shabby to leave the Lofty strike team to the night shift (when they came to the SE), when we'd only been on the fire ground for about 7 hours, nor had any suggestion been made of us organising our own relief crews.

I've not been part of an IMT so don't know the workings and don't wish to criticise, just a bit of discussion.

The release last year of the SAFF/CFS farm fire unit guidelines were intended (?) to encourage better cooperation between CFS & farm units, and go some way to countering the SHQ order some years ago that there was to be no contact by CFS with these units (or so my GO tells me). Plus covering a few other issues such as safety etc etc.

Has anyone experienced a change in cooperation or tactics etc which work (or not!), or has it been business as usual (a continuation of your brigade/group's previous attitude to this, whatever that was!)?

(and by no means do I want to go down the path of the last private unit thread, so please stay away from that if possible!)

I've just been using the search function a bit, and find that once I enter the info and hit search then follow a link to a possible match, I can't go back.

A page pops up to say whatever I was looking at has expired, so I go back another page & re-enter the search query then go again.

Bit of a pain as I rarely find what I'm after first time, and it's not something I've run in to on other sites.

Just thought I'd mention it. Hopefully this all makes sense!

In PPE pockets:
Gloves (whatever you get with level 1 gear)
Dust mask

Small bag normally hanging on 4wd lever in ute:
Digital camera
Eye wash (I wear contact lenses)
Sunglasses
Torch
Cap
Note book, pen & pencil
Wallet

If likely to be a strike team/long job, add to bag:
ipaq with mapping
bluetooth gps receiver
ipod & transmitter
book (novel. haven't previously, but next strike team I will!)
map book for appropriate region, if required.
jumper

Always have a pocket knife on my belt anyway.