SA Firefighter

As far as the Dennis is concerned, I know a bloke who knows a bloke in the UK who
is a fire service mechanic.  Apparently, that particular Dennis was a lemon in the
UK too. It was gotten rid-of for that reason. Other vehicles of its vintage are
still in service.

Or so the story goes. If true, it is hardly a fair test of the appliance type.

19:14:46   20-09-09   STOP CALL 1 ILLEGAL BURN EXTUINGISHED.

Illegal?
At this time of year?
Under what Act?

Of course, it would be even cheaper again to mount the big pump on a trailer.
To be towed behind the Hyundai van of course...

Don't hold your breath....
The screed I saw only mentioned sending messages to mobiles with a home address
in the affected area.
Not yet seriously considering cell broadcast, which sends an SMS to all devices
affiliated to a particular cell. Cell broadcast falls down a little in hilly
areas serviced by long-range technologies like Telstra's Next G The cell your
phone is affiliated to is not necessarily the closest one. Your best line-of-
sight connection may be to a cell many km away. Especially true if you are in a
gully on the hills face overlooking Adelaide metro.

cheers

I see the bleeding heart greens are already wee-wee-weeing about the 20metre
rule. Adelaide Hills will be turned into bare earth, the end of the world is
upon us, etc, etc.

Imagine how much money could be saved by installing paid Groupies - people
answerable to the minister rather than the vols...

"We want to buy a..."
"NO"

"We need a..."
"NO"



Then there is the reduced time impost on Regions & HQ in arguing / discussing
issues with vols. The hired lackey does what they are told.  I'd suggest it
would all need to be handled verrrry carefully to avoid a walkout by a large
number of those pesky volunteers...

There I was thinking the mega-burn-off was the one where we put in the
back-burn from Mt Gambier to Birdsville on a strong westerly...

And I'm not at all bitter about the Crows losing. 

Interesting...
http://www.ufuvic.asn.au/common_couplings_paper_1.pdf is the latest AFAC position as of May 2008
Document (justifiably IMHO) assassinates Stortz for small diameter hoses, and
totally igores the existence of any couplings other than Stortz, Forestry & BIC.  

Ever.

So it's now Forestry for bushfire 25 & 38mm
Stortz for larger & for suction.

What's odd is that I had a prior AFAC document, 2005-ish vintage which stated
that while Forestry was the preferred small-diameter rural coupling, it wasn't
suited to high-pressure lines (>1200KPA from fuzzy memory).  It stated Barway
was the AFAC preferred standard coupling for these.  Wonder what changed their
minds about HP couplings?

cheers

And if the IMT has enough trouble getting timely and accurate information about where the fire is and what it's doing, how can they be expected to warn the public?

Not only that, but at a big fire, just how do you describe the position of
something which surges & halts randomly along its flame-front? Assuming you can
even tell where the flame front is amongst 1 or 2 km deep of multiple &
increasing spot fires?  Is it even relevant?

How do you -accurately- describe its location relative to a number of urban
interface streets when, by the time you have read the list of streets, it has
already moved several hundreds of metres?  But only in some places.

Methinks the media is willfully misleading the public as to what is possible.
Never let reality stand in the way of manufacturing a good "scandal".

Chap before the commission on 3rd June (on page 101) made a good point about
official warnings. Dry officialese standard approved messages simply don't
convey reality to listeners.

"Listening to the - it was almost immune, you were almost
immune to the warnings because it is the same - you get
football commentators, when they are talking about a
football match, they are using incredibly colourful and
creative language to describe a guy who jumps up in the
air and grabs a ball. He becomes a hero, he becomes a
world class player at everything. Okay, it's exciting,
but people have become immune to this type of colourful
language and when something is extreme, it doesn't get any
worse than extreme on any other day, whether it is a 27
degree day or whether it is a 30 degree day and we have a
north wind blowing. The factors that go into making an
extreme fire danger day are not described to the people
who really need that warning."

Anyone else wading through the transcripts & submissions ?

Day 15 (1st June) is worth a read. (yes I'm waaaay behind)
http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/getdoc/75285f31-46a4-4634-9dde-3a04eec44d13/June-09
The ABC producer in the first quarter is skip overable.
The policeman who was home when his house went at the Churchill fire is amazing reading.
Russell Rees has some very interesting comments. Particularly in the areas of
fuel reduction & agency interworking & culture change.

I see in todays Age on-line that he has renewed his contract as CFA CEO.
Having read the day 15 transcript, I think that a quite reasonable decision.
Both by him & the CFA. (Not letting you do my footy tipping Bill  )

cheers

So....
photograph everything deficient at the stations you know about and
which has been reported to Region and
which repair has been declined or
supply has been declined
due to shortage of funds.

Send it to CFSVA with explanation & history.
CFSVA has only one paid staff member.  She can't be everywhere.
CFSVA delegates are vollies with real lives, same as the rest of us.
They can't go everywhere either. (They don't get paid mileage either.)

Supply CFSVA with ammo.  Don't just moan because they seem to be a bit short.
cheers
AJ

SAFECOM are currently auditing fire stations within CFS.  From my discussions with the inspector he believes that stations will be upgraded to make a minimum level, some of his comments were: male & female toilets, change rooms, CABA cleaning facilities, and any other issues which may arise with stations.  

He said the R1 stations would be complete by the end of the month with a report re each station by the end of the month also.  Then the other regions will follow and he said he has to the end of March to finish the rest of the state.

He did not know if work was going to commence immediately or if this was a report to ascertain how good or how bad things are.

As I understood it, this is the first real look SAFECOM has taken at what it
has inherited from councils. Intent is to work out 5 & 10 year budget plans
for maintenance & replacement. With just a little rot in the fascias & a leak
in the roof, ours is one of the better ones he'd seen to date. One urban brigade
has load-bearing brick walls which wobble when pushed.    Others have cracks
you can put your hand through.  That's just in "well-off" Region 1.
cheers

Just a question as pay has been raised several times. How much are payed staff on in rough figures? Because I'm on salary, work 60 plus hours a week minimum, no leave loading, no perks & get payed about $66k (including super). So are people under payed or are their expectations a bit high? And before anyone asked I work in OHS for a major company & depending on qualifications & area of responsiblity range between 60 & 85K (thats us OHS types). And we are "performanced managed" out of the business if we don't meet our targets, over spend, don't help increase profit or don't reduce costs! Or if someone higher up has to
So is it relly that bad being paid staff, & if it is why stay?
cheers

Chook, my good man...

1. You are getting ripped-off. You can get a better hourly rate in a call centre,
fitting tyres or asking "do you want fries with that?".

2. CFS staff tend to stay on because, unlike so many other jobs in our messed-up world,
what they do really 'makes a difference'. Like SES staff, many/most are vollies who are
getting the chance to serve the community more than they could as vollies. When
financial reality bites, they move to other parts of the PS or out altogether.  By the
same token, lots of good people don't apply for CFS jobs because it is too much of a
pay cut for the responsibility carried. 

Maybe you should be aiming to put your knowledge & experience into a paid SES or CFS
role ?...

cheers