SA Firefighter
General Discussion => SAMFS => Topic started by: PF_ on July 02, 2006, 04:06:19 PM
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How do they decide where to put in a retained MFS station? Some places hardly need an MFS station as they get less than 50 calls a year. Wouldnt it be cheaper to have a CFS brigade there...
This isnt a CFS vs MFS thread, a genuine question.
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can be to do with assets in the community
eg;
one steel - whyalla
smelters in pt pirie (hence the full time crew as well)
large amounts of industrial stuff in pt augusta and mt gambier
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yeah but what about places like Tanunda, Burra, Wallaroo etc. Surprised pt Augusta and Gambier arent full time.
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MFS was put in to places like Burra, Peterborough sp??, etc etc as a publicity thing many years ago i can't recall the exact reason but believe thats why theres mets in towns that do very few calls.
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I think you will find some of these small MFS country stations will close under safecom as the CFS in these towns is large .
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yeah but what about places like Tanunda, Burra, Wallaroo etc. Surprised pt Augusta and Gambier arent full time.
personally im suprised pt pirie IS full time...
as for tanunda, kapunda, moonta etc... all seems a bit strange
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I think you will find some of these small MFS country stations will close under safecom as the CFS in these towns is large .
I wonder if all those stations have PBI and new BA cylinders etc like the city and main MetFS retianed.
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Speaking of new cylinders, are CFS getting carbon cylinders anytime soon and what exactly are the new MFS BA stff theyre getting?
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of course they have PBI and good BA - they have equality through the service (pretty much... :wink: not completely....
rel CFS BA cylinders, i dont think carbon fibre cylinders are high n the list of things to do from what ive heard... everything ive heard has been - too expensive, shorter shelf life etc... would ber nice though
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im not 100% but believe the new MFS BA gear, is an upgrade that has a backplate that has a bit of give in it, special strap system that lets the set rotate and extend with the operators movement...
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CFS: I heard the current cylinders are being phased out and carbon coming in.
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The sets also send a signal back to the ECO board (laptop) with the cylinder contents of each set during operations.
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Mt Gambier will be day staffing as of early January 2007 (officially).
ps Retained MFS regional stations (country) do have carbon fibre cylinders on their sets but have to use FRP as spare cylinders. Think this is changing when the new BA sets arrive though.
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CFS: I heard the current cylinders are being phased out and carbon coming in.
smells like BS... reminds me of plenty of rumors over the years.
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Mt Gambier will be day staffing as of early January 2007 (officially).
ps Retained MFS regional stations (country) do have carbon fibre cylinders on their sets but have to use FRP as spare cylinders. Think this is changing when the new BA sets arrive though.
personally ive always found that strange...
not only would you want a lighter cylinder for your second cylinder... rather than the first, but also; youd think for the small amount of stations they have, could splurge a little bit of cash to go full carbon fibre....
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CFS: I heard the current cylinders are being phased out and carbon coming in.
They are still producing the FRP cylinders, so you'll be waiting 15 years to get your Carbon fibres.
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fair enough, getting back on the railroad track, with retained MFS, do they have crew rosters or is it a free for all like CFS when there is a cal out?
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Depends on the station .Some like Renmark seem to have a roster by looking at their pager messages. Others like Mt Gambier dont. We have a book for people to book off if they are not available, the ones that arent booked off are expected to turn up for jobs. Basically the first ones through the door are the ones that ride the appliances.
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Okay cool.
Also, can one be a member of the retained MFS and CFS?
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Well yes it is possible. But in a busy station like Mt Gambier it would be very difficult. We did 524 calls for the financial year just ended and you are expected to attend at least 50% of these. So to do both you would have to split yourself in two. Especially with training, station duties and all the other stuff you have to do. If you go out to a call with CFS and then get a call from MFS you are stuck.
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Yeah but with Mt Gambier you can be just MFS because you do have 500+ calls, thats more than 1 a day, plenty of calls to satisfy you :-P
With the 50% do you have to just come to the station or get on the truck cause it can be difficult if someone keeps coming abd you live the furthest and miss the truck etc.
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You are expected to then ride for half of the calls you attend. This includes riding the appliance or doing radio in the station, so thats not to hard to achieve. The rule is too that you must live within 10 minutes of the station (travelling time).
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PF,evan going to fire alarms gets boring...........until they became a real working job..............
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Im not bothered by alarms, only had 1. IM happy to go to them because they could be a real fire. Be spewin if you decided not to go "cause its just a silly alarm" then find out it was a fire. :-o
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dont be one of these idiots that pick there calls... IMO if your home or available and the pager goes, attend the station regardless of the incident type, or get out of the service.
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How did this come up,
I dont pick my calls, if you read what I wrote you'd see that I dont.
(unless youre not referring to me in which you can carry on)
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Youre new to the service, he is just suggesting that you NOT BECOME one of those calls picking idiots. :) (Yes, I just backed up Medevac, strange things are happening)
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I've been to everything except 3 this calendar year since becoming BFF1, two I was at school and 1 was a bad MVA about a month after BFF1 and I had school the next morning so didnt go to that one, filtered school. :-P I want to go to all of them, whatever the reason.
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Keep the good work up PF,I never pick my calls its only I am never home of late......
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IM starting to wonder if people are gonna get annoyed with me and my family (mum and bro also in the brigade) always rocking up to calls and taking places on the truck. So far I think its only been twice weve had too many but I cant help but wonder if we'll ever get told to goh ome cause have been to too many call outs.
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Being a poor student, with a part time job, I've lots of spare time. I've now got a reputation of having no life and living at the station :P
Why should calls be shared around? First trained people to the station should be taking the applaiance out.
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I dont have a job so have even more spare time. :lol:
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PF,couple of job's going in the paid staff in CFS...apply...
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Still at school mate. :|
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How did this come up,
I dont pick my calls, if you read what I wrote you'd see that I dont.
(unless youre not referring to me in which you can carry on)
just a side comment re; alarms being boring... its just something i hate, we get crap turnouts for alarms, but as soon as its a triple zero call and not just an AFA then people turnout... lol. nm me.
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IMO - first to the station with relative training, get the truck out,,, its about response times not keeping everyone else in the brigade happy.
keep in mind though that experience can be just as important as training.
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How did this come up,
I dont pick my calls, if you read what I wrote you'd see that I dont.
(unless youre not referring to me in which you can carry on)
just a side comment re; alarms being boring... its just something i hate, we get crap turnouts for alarms, but as soon as its a triple zero call and not just an AFA then people turnout... lol. nm me.
No worries, yeah I havent experienced the differing turn out rates (dont peoples houses burn down here, jeez!!! (JOKE))
Yeah I know relativily it is first in the door gets on the truck but dont other members get shirty when there is always the same person going out or am I just thinking too much :-P
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mate, dont expect to get too many going building fires...
of our 99 jobs;
20 alarms (AFA and security companies)
9 triple zero calls for buildings - only one of these was actually decent from memory... we were 4th arriving for one of them so not much action there anyway.
but there are many more brigades that do absoloutely whack numbers of alarm calls.... gets ridiculous and so ppl stop turning out. always more exciting wondering what ya gonna be met by when the call has actually come from the public
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I dont think we have many alarms in our area and we dont get many building fires either. jeez, IM still yet to go to any fire in 7 or 8 call outs.
I dont know why people would just go "screw it, just an alarm" and not respond for that reason, keeping in mind we are vollies who have other commitments and dont repond for those reasons as well. Ya still get to get the flashing lights and siren fix everyone craves, admit it!
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All it took was for one fire alarm call that turned in to a decent fire in our brigade and our numbers for alarms went from an average 3-4 people for them to 8-9....
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I bet the ones that turned up to that alarm were felling quite smug afterwards.
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I'd warned them... we've still got the odd member who won't rock up for the local nursing home even though we get 2or3 justified calls there per year?
I just don't get people who pick and choose their calls, if the pager goes and i'm available i'll go to any call no matter what it is. But such is volunteering.
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PF - i reckon out where u are will see a few grassies over the season... but in my brigade i went to about 50 calls before i actually saw any fire, and that was just a carfire... admitedly i missed a couple of calls in that timeframe... but yeh, would have taken around 8months of MVAs, fires that werent fires, alarms and stop calls before actually seeing fire LOL. this was mostly winter though... :wink:
my point is, dont expect all action. its really quite boring most of the time LOL
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^^funnily enough actually...
saw my first fire at that carfire, then within a week we were at a large rubbish/bamboo fire, then shortly after that a going domestic... funny how these things go
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Yeah most likely will see a fire in the summer or a bit earlier. Missed a few fires from stop calls and one fire turned out to be a bonfire after rain that day which MFS went to and sent a stop call back. "permit sighted by MFS it was a bonfire" :lol: I would love to know who called that in, especially after a day of rain. Admittedly I had to drive past on the way to the station and it did look a bit suspicious.
Yeah, we recently had a call out per week for a few weeks after going nearly a month job less. It is odd how stuff all seems to come at once.
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....Yeah I know relativily it is first in the door gets on the truck but dont other members get shirty when there is always the same person going out or am I just thinking too much :-P
I think you have a valid point.
I have spoken to a CFS volunteer a few years ago at One Tree Hill when the Brigade siren was used regularly. I think the brigade had a one truck only. His property was out of town, so the volunteers that lived in the town always rolled the truck before he could get to the station.
If he even got to a going job, it was for cleanup. His most memorable experience that he could tell me was that he used a rake in a paddock to check for smoldering bits as part of a mopping up crew.
I also spoke to a lady in South Coast SES that lives in Victor Harbor. This lady always knew she would never make the RCR truck, because driving time was too long. But she responded to searches, storm, etc jobs, or travelled in the second vehicle.
How do you keep enthusiasm up of the volunteers who cannot make the 3 to 6 minute response time to the shed with a single vehicle, while maintaining response times ? Do people use private cars to transport extra people, or are they just left at the shed to wait ?
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i know moral and enthusiasm are important for keeping vollies in the service, but at the end of the day it should be about response times, not keeping everybody happy.
i have been told that a certain station were told to implement a roster to keep everyone in there brigade happy because people constantly missed the truck, due to the closer 'cranks' beating them all the time, and put in complaints...
this now means that even if someone turns up to the station they cant get on the appliance unless there on the roster or a certain perios of time passes.... now that ridiculous. a perfect example of sacrificing response times to keep people happy.
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....Yeah I know relativily it is first in the door gets on the truck but dont other members get shirty when there is always the same person going out or am I just thinking too much :-P
I think you have a valid point.
I have spoken to a CFS volunteer a few years ago at One Tree Hill when the Brigade siren was used regularly. I think the brigade had a one truck only. His property was out of town, so the volunteers that lived in the town always rolled the truck before he could get to the station.
If he even got to a going job, it was for cleanup. His most memorable experience that he could tell me was that he used a rake in a paddock to check for smoldering bits as part of a mopping up crew.
I also spoke to a lady in South Coast SES that lives in Victor Harbor. This lady always knew she would never make the RCR truck, because driving time was too long. But she responded to searches, storm, etc jobs, or travelled in the second vehicle.
How do you keep enthusiasm up of the volunteers who cannot make the 3 to 6 minute response time to the shed with a single vehicle, while maintaining response times ? Do people use private cars to transport extra people, or are they just left at the shed to wait ?
She wouldn't have a problem at the moment, i believe most of South Coast SES members don't live in Port Elliot....
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We once used a private ute to transport a generator cause when its on the back there is stuff all room.
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Im a retained MFS. A few of us live within 2 minutes of the station. If I lived further away and would rarely make the trucks I wouldnt be in the service.
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Its a mad,mad ,mad world we live in,what about this one,there is a brigade who has a parking area only for officers. Now come on people are we really that silly????
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Its a mad,mad ,mad world we live in,what about this one,there is a brigade who has a parking area only for officers.
LMAO - were usually lucky if we get an officer during the day, nevermind giving them special parks....
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mmmmmmmmm,Officer during the day is hard here but with trainned members you can do the job without them...
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Its a mad,mad ,mad world we live in,what about this one,there is a brigade who has a parking area only for officers. Now come on people are we really that silly????
Ahhhh the reason why we volunteer is always interesting....maybe 'status in the community' is the reason for some people....the status reason is in many volunteer organisations including the one I am associated with :-P
It is a pity because it can really inhibit a 'team spirit' forming.
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Im a retained MFS. A few of us live within 2 minutes of the station.
I know of a retained MFS around 10 to 15 minutes away from there station, they quite often have problems getting crews. They are advertising for 6 new members.
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Ive seen an advertisement for Tanunda. Shame I live too far away.
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With the huge number of BA cylinders the CFS has there is no way they can replace them before they are out of date. Would cost big $$. guess they will try and do it gradually
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Think that is the idea