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Topics - CFS_Firey

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1
Country Fire Service / New CFS Members' Area website
« on: April 22, 2013, 11:21:16 AM »
Any thoughts on the new members' area?  Other than the layout, I don't see much different to the old one...

2
All Equipment discussion / Dead reels
« on: April 22, 2013, 11:13:19 AM »
What are peoples opinions on dead reels?  The CFS seems to be putting them on all the new trucks, but I'm not convinced they're any more useful than rolled hoses.  Has anyone had experience with them?

3
SA Firefighter General / New bomber response zone
« on: December 10, 2012, 03:23:11 PM »
What do people think about the new HRZ and associated procedures?  Waste of money, or saving lives?

4
SA Firefighter General / MOVED: Wilpena fire
« on: January 26, 2012, 08:58:14 PM »

5
HAZMAT / First alarm response
« on: December 05, 2011, 11:57:06 AM »
I've heard a rumour that the first alarm response has been changed to 1 Hazmat brigade, instead of 2.

It seems to have been put into SACAD as a single Hazmat brigade response:

MFS: *CFSRES INC0035 05/12/11 13:19 RESPOND HAZMAT, 169 MAIN RD BLACKWOOD,MAP:ADL 154 P 2,TG 146, ==Car park at these premises. Unlabelled containers appear to have been dumped. :AIRDESK4 BKWD34 EDNHPUMP28 R1 HASTIE : - CFS Eden Hills Response

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

8
Country Fire Service / Royal Show 2011
« on: September 09, 2011, 12:36:29 PM »
Has anyone seen the CFS stand at this year's show?
I hear they're pushing the "Not Just a Bushfire Service" message quite hard.
Anyone have photos by any chance?

9
Quote
PETER CAVE: Japan is mourning hundreds of firefighters who died trying to save lives in the March earthquake and tsunami.

Many died trying to shut sea gates as the massive waves thundered towards the shore.

In the town of Rikuzentakata, 49 firefighters were swept to their deaths by waves over 13 metres in height.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3231332.htm

I wouldn't mind seeing that video...

10
SA Firefighter General / MOVED: RCR Oakbank
« on: November 13, 2010, 07:08:02 PM »

11
SA Firefighter General / MOVED: Yr 12 Muck up day
« on: November 07, 2010, 05:25:32 PM »

12
Yesterday afternoon several media outlets around South Australia received a package containing a red USB stick.

The stick contained a file which outlayed 310 pages of Budget cuts that were to be announced tomorrow in the Treasurer's release.

The document outlines how the Government may hope to achieve its billion dollars of cuts to expenditure, in a bid to trim the costs of the state and have the Government remain profitable.

[Read More]

Recommendations that involve the fire services include:

Introduce Fees for CFS Services in line with MFS
Introduction of fees for CFS alarm monitoring, false alarms and fire safety advice. The fees would be set at the
same rates as MFS so that consistent fees are charged regardless of location.

Own CFS Light Fleet Rather than Lease
CFS maintains a light fleet of over 150 4WD vehicles, such as Nissan Navaras, that are used by volunteer
officers as operational Command and Logistics vehicles in a response role and are driven on the fireground.
CFS currently leases these vehicles whereas it would be cheaper to own these vehicles as they travel relatively
low kilometres compared to the average lease vehicle and require extensive fit-out including lights, sirens,
badging, radios, bull bars, custom shelving etc. which are inefficient to change-over on relatively short leasing
periods.

CFS FTE Reductions
CFS could achieve savings by reducing its staffing levels. Savings are based on reducing its Regional staff by
3, Training by 4, Infrastructure & Logistics by 2, Operations by 2, Administration by 1 and Executive by 1.

Reverse IT connectivity for CFS volunteers
In February 2010, the Government announced $9.4m over five years to provide IT connectivity, additional
pagers and the acceleration of building and maintenance works for emergency services volunteers. This
initiative would reverse the IT component providing computers and broadband access to CFS Brigades and
Groups.

Aerial Firefighting Phase 1 - Discontinue Medium Volume Helicopters
Reduce South Australia's aerial firefighting fleet by discontinuing the two medium volume helicopters and a
surveillance helicopter. Helicopters are more expensive than fixed wing aircraft.

Discontinue Annual Bushfire Awareness Campaign
CFS has funding for an ongoing bushfire awareness campaign involving limited television, radio and print
advertising. The campaign seeks to remind the general public of the threat of bushfires and encourages them
to seek additional information on being prepared. Savings could be achieved by discontinuing this campaign.

Discontinue CFS Community Education Programs
CFS has a base Community Education team of five part-time Community Education Officers that work with
local communities to provide practical advice on preparing for bushfires. Savings could be achieved by
discontinuing these programs.

Reduce CFS Regions from 6 to 3
CFS currently operates 6 Regions, in order to produce savings, CFS could reduce to 3 larger Regions. Savings
would result from ceasing to lease facilities at Willaston, Murray Bridge and Port Augusta, a reduction of 6
FTEs and associated on-costs.

Surrender the space leased on Level 4 of 60 Waymouth Street Adelaide
Level 4 provides a conference and meeting room areas for the co-ordination of operations and meetings during
emergency situations including CFS press conferences. The lease ends August 2014 and there may be costs
associated with breaking the lease agreement.

Reduction in Records Management System resourcing
The emergency services sector is introducing an electronic Records Management System as currently no
formal system exists for the management and tracking of documents. This saving reduces the resources to
administer the system, train users and provide leadership in strategic records management to 1 FTE.

Discontinue the library service provided at Angle Park
This proposal will discontinue the library service that is provided at the Angle Park Training Centre. The
reduction in 1 FTE will mean that the library will eventually close as it will not be able to function.

Reduce Assets and Procurement function (Phase 1)
A reduction in 2 FTEs through a staff reduction in sector wide procurement systems located at the MFS Store
(1 FTE) and within the centralised procurement team (1 FTE).

Provision of SES Business Management service by SAFECOM
This proposal seeks to remove the SES business manager (an FTE within SAFECOM) and undertake this role
using existing SAFECOM Finance staff.

Reduce Emergency Management function (Phase 1)
This saving will cease the provision of support for statewide water safety initiatives with a reduction of 0.5
FTEs. The Emergency Management function currently consists of 4 FTEs.
This position provides policy and training direction for water safety across the state and is part of a national
system which is aimed at reducing the rapidly increasing number of deaths in water areas.

Reduce staff in Public Affairs function (Phase 1)
This saving seeks to rationalise and consolidate the communications and media function within SAFECOM by
reducing staff by 1 FTE. This function currently consists of 7 FTEs.

Reduce Volunteer Strategy and Support (Phase 1)
This saving reduces administrative and youth support staff within the volunteer strategy and support branch
by 1 FTE. Volunteer Strategy and Support currently has a total of 11 FTEs.


...Plus many more, including closing 4 regional MFS stations, closing 20 CFS brigades, removing 3 MFS Station crews and closing 10 SES units.   Many of these recommendations are listed as "lower priority", and I would hope the government doesn't cut any resourcing of the emergency services.

Read the document on the ABC news article for more info...

13
SASES / Rope Rescue
« on: January 20, 2010, 12:28:44 PM »
Are all units trained and equipped for vertical/high angle rescue?  I've been told some of the hills units aren't equipped for rope rescue, but I find that hard to believe when Rescue from heights is an SES job.
It's a pity there isn't a fire-brigade.asn.au equivalent for SES...

14
SA Firefighter General / Incident number past midnight
« on: November 20, 2009, 09:46:42 AM »
Random question:

How to Adelaide fire handle incident numbers past midnight?  If further resources get responded to an incident the next day, does it still have yesterday's daily incident number on the page, or do they generate a new daily inc number?

15
SA Firefighter General / Server downtime
« on: November 17, 2009, 08:32:53 PM »
Hi all,
Sorry about the significant amount of downtime this site has had recently.  We've been moving it to a new server, and had a few problems in the process.  It's not over yet either, so although I hope today was the last of the downtime, please bear with us if it happens again!

16
Anyone else see the article on page 5 of The Independent Weekly today?

Allegedly Lloyd Johns and Peter Schwerdtfeger, (CFS CO and Board chairman in Ash Wednesday), want the CFS to get a SuperScooper aircraft.  The claim the current CFS 'regime' is working hard to prevent anything like this from ever entering the CFS...

17
SA Firefighter General / MOVED: Recruitment Age
« on: September 18, 2009, 09:31:10 AM »

18
SA Firefighter General / Stay or Go Policy
« on: September 15, 2009, 01:50:37 PM »
The media seems very keen to push the point that the Stay or Go policy is flawed and should be canned in order to save lives.

Does anyone else see this is a stupid move?

What other choices are there?  None!  I thought that was pretty obvious.

Throwing the "Stay or Go" policy into doubt simply encourages people not to make a bushfire action plan because they think that choosing to stay or go will get them killed.

Discuss.

19
SA Firefighter General / Bushfire taskforce recommendations
« on: September 15, 2009, 01:42:07 PM »
Quote
News Release

Premier Mike Rann
Hon Michael Wright, Minister for Emergency Services
Hon Jay Weatherill, Minister for Environment and Conservation

Thursday, 10 September 2009

GOVERNMENT TAKES ACTION ON BUSHFIRE TASKFORCE


The State Government today responded to comprehensive recommendations by the Bushfire Task Force, set up to analyse key issues arising from the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

A new telephone and text messaging warning system will be up and running in time for this year's fire danger season.

Premier Mike Rann said the State Government would invest $12.4 million over the next five years to establish and roll out the system in tandem with the Federal Government, which is injecting $15 million into the project.

"This new warning alert system means alerts relating to the most severe fire threats will be sent to landlines and mobile phones based on the owner's billing address for this bushfire season.

"People will also be able to 'opt in' to the service should they have friends or relatives living in bushfire prone regions," Premier Rann said.

"I am told that by the 2010/11 Bushfire Season, the system will be advanced enough to send messages to mobile phone users travelling through a defined emergency area.

"We want to have as many warning systems in place as possible to protect South Australians in the event of a serious bushfire.

"People need to remember that they must exercise vigilance and responsibility and not rely on a single warning system during a bushfire threat.

"I can also announce that we'll be adopting a new nationally agreed slogan of PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE.

"This is being introduced to reinforce the very real message that people simply won't survive unless they are prepared and take the appropriate action," Premier Rann said.

The PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE slogan will be used extensively in all communication material during the impending bushfire awareness campaign.

A new Fire Danger Ratings scale will be implemented which will include the new categories of "Severe"; "Extreme"; and "Catastrophic" (Code Red) ? indicating that the Fire Danger Index exceeds 100," Mr Rann said.
.
"The purpose of this new category is to let South Australians know that if a fire starts on one of these catastrophic days it is highly likely to be fast moving, uncontrollable and they should not try to defend their homes but relocate," Minister Wright said.

Other key recommendations made by SA's Bushfire Task Force that will be implemented include:

- CFS introducing guidelines and procedures for "directed evacuation" involving Police and other emergency services
- Identifying "Neighbourhood Safer Places" to be used as an alternative for shelter from a bushfire
- Conduct "Bushfire Prevention and Awareness Week" in preparation for fire danger season
- Develop a dwelling bushfire shelter guideline
- Amend the CFS siren policy recommending that working CFS station sirens can be used to provide warnings to communities in specified bushfire emergency situations
- Conduct an audit for the provision of more sirens
- Investigate a framework where State and Federal Government call centres are inter-linked and a capacity for mass incoming calls established

"Another recommendation includes encouraging commercial radio operators to enter into a Memorandum Of Understanding, similar to those that currently exist with the ABC and 5AA for the broadcasting of bushfire warning messages," Mr Wright said.

"I have written to those stations asking that they get on board with the CFS to broadcast bushfire-warning messages this fire danger season, which is just 51 days away.  Obviously this would extend community warnings even further during the danger season, and the more people we can reach the better."

"Whilst SA fire and emergency services can provide advice and warnings to communities, ultimately each individual living in a high risk area needs to be prepared to take protective action should a bushfire strike."

"Since 2002, the Rann Government has implemented a number of important initiatives relating to bushfire prevention and we will continue to ensure that South Australia has the most effective bushfire management practices in place," Minister Wright said.

Environment and Conservation Minister, Jay Weatherill said that the Government also was announcing changes to the rules about managing native vegetation for bushfire prevention purposes.

"People can now clear all native vegetation within 20 metres of a building without approval, Mr Weatherill said.

"Approval processes for other clearances, including for fuel reduction and fire breaks, have been simplified, with most approvals now being granted by the CFS rather than the Native Vegetation Council.

"A new, simplified guide setting out the new rules will be released in coming weeks."

Continuing the Government's commitment to increasing its prescribed burning effort to reduce fuel loads on public lands, more prescribed burning over a larger area is planned for this season.

And in the Mt Lofty Ranges, the three public land agencies ? Department for Environment and Heritage, SA Water and Forestry SA, will join in a combined fuel reduction program.

"This joint approach will allow Government to undertake more burns over a wider area, and to take greater advantage of the small windows of opportunity for burning provided by the weather," Mr Weatherill said.

"In SA we are heading towards the Fire Danger Season and want to see our communities prepare, act and survive the bushfire threat. Now is the time to start preparing," Premier Rann said.

I look forward to seeing what makes it through the CFS chain of command and gets to the volunteers, particularly the evacuation and "Neighbourhood Safer Places" proposals.

20
Country Fire Service / Protest at Parliament House
« on: June 02, 2009, 03:48:20 PM »
As Requested by Rainer in the Sunday Mail thread...

21
SA Firefighter General / Pager shortage
« on: May 26, 2009, 03:58:08 PM »
Just wondering how many brigades, (or units), are suffering from the pager shortage?  Has anyone got a system in place to get people responding in the meantime?

22
SASES / SES chain of command
« on: May 14, 2009, 12:53:02 PM »
Hey,
I noticed in another thread that some volunteer SES positions are appointed rather than elected.
What is the SES chain of command, and at what point are the positions appointed and paid?

24
SA Firefighter General / MOVED: Re: Ideas for the future of the SACFS
« on: February 17, 2009, 08:22:29 PM »
This topic has been moved to All Equipment discussion, and renamed Floating pumps (split from SACFS future ideas). :)

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=2181.0

25
SA Firefighter General / Will you Stay or Leave Early?
« on: February 17, 2009, 03:04:38 PM »
Well it's a hot topic at the moment, so why not discuss it here?

This thread is about your own bushfire action plans.  Who's staying, and who's going early?  The CFS members could well be off on a truck somewhere, but what's the plan for your family?

My plan is to stay and defend.  Apart from the minor issue of wanting a house to live in, it'd be way too inconvenient to be 'leaving early' for most of the summer.

What are you doing?

If you read this thread and are seeking expert advice on your bush fire plan - You must seek advice from the relevant fire authorities. Do Not take this thread as expert advice or policy. It is internet discussion on a forum and can not be relied upon. It may be inaccurate and will only represent an opinion as posted by individuals.

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