SA Firefighter

Teh pager that i haev at the moment has been in and out of the repair shop for sometime goes away to get fixed comes back works for a week or so then nothing....Its a ongoing problem and to think they said these pagers would only last 3 years so we are well over due on new ones......

They generally don't send you the same pager back, normally they just clone yours and send you a new one. I don't think we have ever received the same pager back in the last few years, this is good because it means we are slowly getting rid of all the old model units and replacing them with the newer higher sensitivity units.

Someone smarter than me and with an interest in economics put together a bit of a summary on how we all fared in the state budget today, I thought it might interest some of you.

It was put together fairly quickly and was really meant to be notes so don't complain about the spelling and lack of punctuation.

As you know the State Budget was handed down today. To save those of you who are
slightly more sane than I am the fun of reading it yourself here are my
notes that I took as I read it. Now there are no guarantees on the accuracy
of what I wrote, if you're interested in a quick brief go for my notes, if
you're into the nitty gritty, hit the Treasury website.

Now having written the notes I will write a quick summary of the summary
because even the notes get quite lengthy!

Firstly, the only mention of anything related to us in the summary
documents was the GRN upgrade ($101 million to be spent over four years
upgrading it), so we certainly weren't a focus area, so no big
announcements of wonderful things for us. 

CFS did well last year and both spent less than we were supposed to AND
earned more than we were supposed to, so big pat on the back for us. We
have been given slightly more money for next year, but probably not a great
deal more after you take into account the fact things are more expensive
than they used to be, so we will likely be in about the same situation next
year as we have been this year. Next year we have been told we are allowed
to spend $2.2 million more, however $1 million of this will go on increased
GRN charges, $0.8 million will go on the fact things (including staff
wages) just cost more with inflation and $0.3 million will be our
contribution towards the continuation of the Bushfire CRC.

MFS on the other hand overspent significantly (almost $4 million - although
this is still only about 5% of their budget) mostly on wages (they somehow
ended up with 903 staff when they had only budgeted for 885, and they
approved a nice new pay agreement with their staff, effective January 1)
and their income wasn't much more than the government expected it to be.
They shouldn't have the same problem next year because they are allowed to
spend $9 million more next year (almost a 10% increase), however they are
only expected to bring in $200,000 more in income. Almost all of this extra
money will go towards paying for the improved Enterprise Bargaining
Agreement with their current staff, and the fact their staff numbers are
set to increase by another 22 from where they are now.

So no influx of new trucks or new stations, just keep doing what we're
doing, and because everything is a bit more expensive these days we will be
given more money to buy what we are already buying, and because MFS
fire-fighters are now  a LOT more expensive than they used to be MFS will be
given a LOT more money.

Out of interest sake if you divide the total cost of employee benefits by
the total number of employees for each service, and MFS employee on average
costs $91,000, whereas a CFS employee costs $79,000. If you take into
account the fact that the MFS employee spectrum includes Senior Staff,
Administration and Firefighters, whereas ours only includes Senior Staff
and Administration you can basically assume MFS Senior Staff are paid a
fair bit better than CFS Senior Staff.

So that's the highlights, if you're feeling bored read on!

Here are the notes I made to myself as I read it, they are only the things
that interested me the most, it is not a full list:

Cost of Operating:

2008/9 - CFS Budget was       $53, 762, 000 (which was 2.3 million less
than our cost the year before, which from memory was a fair bit over
budget, thanks to the KI fires)
2008/9 - CFS Actual cost was        $52,676,000
In other words we came in under by slightly over 1 million dollars,
probably due to there being less significant fires this year, and the fact
we got extra money from the federal government.
2009/10 - CFS Budget will be        $54,713,000
In other words our cost of operating for next year is about 1 million
higher than our budgeted cost last year and 2 million more than we ACTUALLY
cost last year. (but still more than we cost this year, since we were
cheaper than expected)

2008/9 - MFS Budget was       $93,466,000 (which was about 9 million more
than the total spent the year before)
2008/9 - MFS Actual cost was        $97,186,000
In other words MFS overspent their budget by 3.7 million dollars, which was
basically spent on employees..
2009/10 - MFS Budget will be        $106,269,000
In other words the MFS budget has increased by 9 million dollars over what
they spent this year, and 12 million from last year's budget again, there
should be notes later on about where the extra money will go. But you would
have to be happy to have 84 million in 2007/8 and by 2009/10 have that go
up by 21.5 million in 2 years!

Poor old SES are allowed to cost $158,000 more next year which was at least
an increase, but is still within $200,000 of where they were 2
years ago.

SAFECOM blew their target of $14 million by over $5million, and have been
given almost the same target for this coming year, so we'll see if they can
blow it again.

For interest's sake SAPOL last year came in under by about $4.5 million and
were rewarded with an increase of about $21 million (5% ish) to a total of
$638,273,000

For the past year CFS had about 110.9 staff, and we're supposed to keep the
exact same number for next year. MFS get an extra 22.5 staff, to go to a
new total of 925.5. Poor old SES have to lose two staff and go back to a
total of 38. SAPOL should get just over 100 new staff.

For interest's sake our minister's office has 13 staff (more than 10%
of the entire paid staff of the CFS)  and is expected to cost just over 1.5
million to run for the next year.

Expenses

These are the straight expenses of the service, without any reference to
income, which may offset the costs. This is basically the amount we are
expected to spend:

2008/9 - CFS Expenses were predicted to be      $56,070,000 (which was
about 3 million less than the total spent the year before)
2008/9 - CFS Actual expenses were         $55,918,000
In other words CFS spent $152 thousand dollars less than we were expected
to AND we had more income in the areas of Commonwealth grants, other
grants, sales of goods and services and other income than we were expected
to, so we were very good performers. We controlled costs and lifted
income - if we were a business we would all be getting bonuses right now 
2009/10 - CFS expenses are expected to be $58,067,000
In other words the CFS get to go on a spending spree and spend almost two
million more next year than we did last year. Some of this will go on wages
(not much though - we don't get any extra staff) most of it goes on general
supplies and services, which have gone up due to inflation, so really we
won't get much more for our buck 

2008/9 - MFS Expenses were predicted to be      $98,669,000 (which was
about 5 million more than the total spent the year before)
2008/9 - MFS Actual expenses were         $102,486,000
In other words MFS spent 3.8 million than they were expected to. Given how
close this is to their cost of operating variance it means they didn't make
up for much of this added expense with increased income.
2009/10 - MFS expenses are expected to be $111,825,000
Basically MFS have a greater variance between their expenses and their cost
of operating because they earn more money than we do, but while we
underspent on expenses and over earned on income, they overspent on
expenses and came in on target on income, so they came out with higher
costs.

CFS
Our significant achievements of the past 12 months were thought to be:
   sending 400 vollies, 45 staff and the aircrane over to Victoria.
   Setting up a taskforce post black saturday to review ourselves
   setting up an incident management task group
   developing the tactical command and leadership course
   building a new website
   having some nice aircraft
   finishing the Mt Gambier group station
   They apparently set up a preparedness program for women on the Eyre
   Peninsula
   They did some more work on the Wangary reccommendations
   they made a DVD for community education
   they conducted a youth summit
For the next year they hope to:
   Reduce the number of people killed and injured in CFS area
   Train volunteers to conduct community education programs (money saver)
   Finish the Pt Lincoln station
   Trial some prototype appliances, including a rescue resource vehicle
   Set up electronic access to systems for the vollies
   Develop an incident level command and leadership program
   Establish a CFS medal award system
   Commence a review of evidence based resourcing levels (looks innocuous
   enough but I think we'll see more of this in the future)

CFS apparently have 15,000 volunteers and 423 locations. The CFS did 7,771
incidents last year.

Employee costs came in a tad over budget ($200,000), but supplies and
services came in under budget by about half a million, but we have been
given an increase of about 2 million on this line for next year (thanks
SAFECOM and inflation). We did however overspend on "other" by over
$250,000.  Our revenue from the commonwealth was also slightly up on
budget, and is expected to stay higher (nearly double budget for last year,
now nearly 2 million). For next year they are expecting to spend 2 million
dollars less on purchasing property plant and equipment (down to 12
million) which is down from 14.5 million in 2007/8.

Community education is going well, and they're pretty happy with their
consultation processes.

70 new appliances were scheduled for delivery (they don't comment on how
many actually WERE delivered).

They did upgrades or replacements at the following stations: Aldgate, Tea
Tree Gully, Curramulka, Georgetown, Saddleworth and the Mount Gambier Group
Coordination Centre.

They wanted 108 brigades to meet SFECs for training, but that didn't happen
(only 61 did - exactly the same number as did last year, so no improvement
there) and they're not terribly positive about meeting this year's target
of 100. Even lowering the bar isn't expected to help us jump over it.
Although they're saying it's because "if a single member lapses in their
training, the brigade will not have met the requirements", no mention of
the fact it isn't because the poor scapegoat "single member" tried but
couldn't get on a course. They trained up 703 new recruits last year. They
wanted to run 2 state level 3 exercise, but only managed one, and wanted to
run 12 regional level 2 exercises (2 per region), but only managed 4 (not
sure which regions got left behind), in light of this they have lowered the
bar and now will be happy if each region manages one.

Of the 7,771 calls the CFS went to 2,356 were vehicle related, 2,073 were
rural, 398 were structure fires and 192 were HAZMAT. So we could call
ourselves the Country Car Fire and Rescue Service.

The biggest incidents of last year were:
the deployment of CFS resources to assist in the Victorian Bushfires,
the Yorke Peninsula hay storage facility fire,
the Port Augusta prison incident, and
bushfires at Onkaparinga Hills,Waitpinga, Engelbrecht, Gawler River, Bibaringa, Danggali, Cobdogla, Robe, Frances and Proper Bay.

Apparently more fire deaths and injuries occur in CFS area than the
national average but this is improving. One of the reasons for this may be
that we include any reported injuries in our stats, but the national
average only counts them if the person is hospitalised.

Another stat that may get some attention post black saturday - 100% of
bushfire warning and information messages were issued within 30 minutes and
99% of calls to the bushfire hotline were answered.

72% of bushfires have a determined cause, and they were hoping for 80%, so
we will have another go at that one next year.

MFS
Their highlights form last year were considered:
   helping put on the AFAC conference
   Completing the Paradise station and starting work on Seaford
   Commissioning the new Aerial
   Worked with TAFE to review their staff development framework
   They conducted 4 recruit courses
   They renegotiated their EBA
Their big plans for next year include:
   Completing Seaford Station
   delivering 12 new General Purpose Pumpers
   Commissioning the Lincoln station and aerial
   Getting involved in USAR
   they will run "multiple' recruit courses

They had to spend a bit more money ($77,000) finishing the Beulah park
station this year that they hadn't planned to, and another $68,000 on their
engineering facility. The did a lot of work on Paradise, with only $300,000
or so more to do next year. They did about a third of the work they had
planned to on the Lincoln station, so still have heaps to do next year, and
they did half as much on the Seaford station as they planned, so still have
another 3 million to go on that one.

They blew their employee budget by 4 million, but that's OK their budget
for next year for employees has gone up by 11.5 million for next year, so
they still have 8 million to go, which will go on 22.5 new staff and the
fact they pay their current staff more under the new EBA. Almost
everything else for them was pretty close to target.

They are also pretty happy about a solar power initiative they started.

They investigated 185 fires and expected to investigate 210 (they now
expect 195 for next year). 75 CFS fires were investigated, when they only
expected 70. They expect 70 again this coming year.

They were also slightly down in school visits and the like.

They assessed more building proposals than they expected to, and did more
inspections. They did less booster commissioning than expected and they
expect to stay at the new lower level (because less new buildings are being
commissioned thanks to the GFC)

They did more training than they thought they would, and they recruited the
54 people they planned to. In the coming year they plan to recruit 36
people (so maybe one less recruit squad in the intake)

The number of structure fires they went to was well down, (1200 instead of
1700) and they think it will stay down. vehicle fires were slightly down,
as were other fires. Overall they went to 2,000 less callouts last year
than they expected to and they expect to go to even less (20,350) next
year. HAZMATs nearly halved, rescues were up about 20% and alarms were
down. They think structure fires might be down because of education
programs, but too early to say, and they think alarms are down because of
the new charging regime.

They wanted to arrive within 7 minutes (metro area) 75% of the time and
made it 80% of the time, and are hoping for 75% next year too. The retained
guys did better, with the same target of 75%, but for 11 minutes, they
managed it 81% of the time. The paid country guys topped the pops - with an
11 minute arrival target (jobs can be up to 50km away) they managed it 96%
of the time, 1% above their target.

They had budgeted for 50 SPAM debriefs but had 100, and are expecting 75
next year.

They have a fair bit of cash at hand at the moment, but they will invest a
chunk of that into land and buildings next year (that would be the
leftovers from being behind schedule at Lincoln and Seaford) they expect to
spend less next year on plant and equipment (vehicles, machines and stuff)
probably because they got the Aerial out last year.

SAFECOM
Over the next year they are:
   supposed to look at a telephony based emergency warning system (anyone
   see that coming?)
   They will have a focus on building replacement
   Changes to the Act (as suggested in the John Murray review) are supposed
   to be implemented
   They need to finish implementing the Wangary coronial findings
   Volunteer services need to be reviewed to "ensure that they align to the
   National Standards for Volunteers"
   They also need to "Provide the government with recommendations on
   Emergency Services Delivery Standards based on community risk", Keep an
   eye on this one, could be a lead-in to some service rationalisation.
   They also need to "Conduct a review of the procurement, servicing and
   salvaging of appliances, vehicles and vessels across the sector to
   improve efficiency, effectiveness and consistency", in it's best form it
   could mean some nice joint contracts for appliances with other services,
   could mean second hand MFS pumpers go on the run as CFS pumpers, but in
   its worst form it could mean that they extend the life of a CFS pumper
   to about a million years, or until it the amount of chewing gum
   holding it together outweighs the rust...

For their past year's $5 million blowing of the budget they are patting
themselves on the back for:
   Updating their website
   reviewing the administrative workloads of volunteers
   Basically doing what they are supposed to

Most of the blowout in budget occurred under "Services and Supplies" which
they were supposed to spend 5 million on, but they spent 10 million on.
They have been allocated even less ($500,000 less) for this budget line
next year. There are no clear details on what this entails, but i can tell
you it isn't consultancies, because they were pretty much on budget. Maybe
they bought a lot of paperclips.
They also significantly overspent on "Other" which was supposed to be
$64,000 but became $166,000. They have been only been given $65,000 for
this budget line next year so won't be allowed to keep up the
overspend.T hey were expecting to get half a million from the government
last year but got zippo (it was sent to Treasury instead, because they now
look after the relevant programs so they are expecting zilch again this
year).

They set up a State Logistics Functional Service which will provide
logistics support, such as catering and supplies during major emergencies.

SAFECOM had slightly less staff than they were allowed, so that was a bit
cheaper and they got given more money by the state government that was
moved between programs (some of the stuff that went to treasury got sent
back) but this didn't quite make up for the mystery overspend. They blamed
the overspend on "inflation supplementation"

SAFECOM expect to get less from the ESL next year, but are happy with that
because they think the emergency services will get cheaper next year (make
up your own mind about that one)

A bit of an update on the TIM system.

I know now of at least four CFS brigades and the two new MFS stations that are using the Turnout system, so far everyone I believe everyone has been fairly happy apart from a couple of little bugs.

At Morphett Vale we have now setup four monitors, one in the meeting room, one in the radio room and two in the engine bay. This will probably be enough for our station for the moment.

We have also bee trialing the second page printout for providing some pre-plan information. This seems to be working ok and will be rolled out to the other stations in the next update I believe. I have added a demo printout so you can get an idea of what it looks like. I have used a Google Earth map but you can use whatever you like, it could be a building plan or a photo if you wanted. This info will be very useful for initial responding crews, particularly the hazards and contact details.

There has also been some work done on the way TIM handles messages generated from the Alpha Off Air Decoder, you can now choose to ignore these or display them. A number of other small features have been added and the general stability of the software has been improved.

A couple of other new features are also currently being investigated. One will provide brigade members with the ability to advise the station that they are responding to an incident, a list will be populated with the details of the member so others can see who is on the way. This is still in the early stages but if it works it could be very beneficial to some brigades.

The ability to use the computer screens to provide some information when not is use for incidents is also being worked on. It may be possible to provide some scrolling text messages to advise the brigade on training dates, equipment changes etc and have them automatically change at a certain date or time.

The developer is very keen to continue to improve this software and provides excellent support to brigades that are using it.

If you have any questions or would like a demo let me know.

ALARM CLEARED at 16/04/2009 09:30:18: SAMFS PARADISE STATION, 57 DARLEY RD, PARADISE, PA ACKNOWLEDGE, 16/04/2009 09:29:58

MFS: *CFSRES INC000 16/04/09 11:07,RESPOND RCR NO PERSONS TRAPPED,TEST SREET,TEST SUBURB MAP 84 G 2 TG182,CORNER OF SOME OTHER ROAD,TTGY19 PDS221

They are currently testing the Turnout Information Management (TIM) system.

They use the response page to activate the TIM and open the doors and lights etc, also opens the station PA which then sends the acknowledge page back via a spare slot in the station fire alarm system to Comm's so they know the initial page was received.

All new stations are using the TIM system and I believe there is talk of a few others going to it as well due to the lack of spare bits n pieces for the current VHF turnout system.

Those that like listening to the VHF turnout channel on 164.0375mhz will eventually be without it.

The process really isn't that involved, the hardest part is convincing the Group that we need the gear and working out who is going to pay for the kits, the training, the annual servicing, the cylinders and the ongoing re-accreds each year. Once we worked that out the Group Officers were happy to support it.

The next step is to get a 'Prescribed Equipment Form 2' completed and signed by your Group Officer, that then goes to the Regional Commander who then signs off on it and it goes to the Infrastructure and Logistics gurus, once they are happy with your what your are purchasing and how you are going to stow it you can then place an order. As we were using some money left over from the AED grants we had a few other things to sort out but the whole process took a couple of months from the time we got serious about it to the time we completed the training and put the gear on the trucks.

We were also fortunate enough to obtain a previous risk assessment that had been conducted by someone at Region One, fortunately it was for the same kits as we purchased so required very little alteration.

As for other brigades purchasing 02 therapy gear I guess it depends where you are as to how likely your Regional Commander is to sign off on it. Our Group Officer had some discussions with with the Regional Commander prior to our application and he now seems happy with the concept, other R.C's might not feel the same way though.

As for the AED's, they are approved to go, there is an email from the Chief with his permission to carry these. However because they generally cost over $1500 you will still need the approval of your Region to purchase them.

After conducting the training on the weekend and undertaking a fair bit of research into AED's and how they work I am pretty comfortable that our brigade has spent the money wisely. I can see a huge benefit to the community and the CFS if these are widely deployed on fire service vehicles. It will only be a matter of time before a life is saved with this gear.

Thanks to those that have assisted me with this project, as a result we are now carrying an 02 Therapy kit and an AED on Morphett Vale 24P and Morphett Vale 24. For info we went with the Defibtech Lifeline AED, and the NEANN-OBR 02 kit.

After having completed and Senior First Aid refresher and an Advanced Resus course on the weekend I can say that the Advanced Resus was definitely the most useful and more interesting. No offence to St John but I think the course could easily be made more interesting and relevant (I know they are trying to cater for the whole community but really how much bandaging have we ever done). At least it is now only one day for an initial or refresher.

The instructor for our Advanced Resus focused on what we need to know as first responders, and the sort of things that we would actually expect to be doing, all of the guys came away from that saying that course was better than any of the first aid courses we have done.

Nah, I'm not fussed, in fact next time drop in and say g'day. Always happy for people to come in and have a chat and look around.

It is one of the spare fleet, last year we put together a proposal to utilise our station as a place to store spare appliances.

After some issues were previously identified with pumps not working and a lack of maintenance on some of the spare vehicles we suggested that we could ensure that a vehicle is well maintained and correctly stowed ready for operational use by leaving one with us.

With a recent increase in our SFEC prescription for firefighters the extra appliance also means we can get more people out to training and firecalls, we have been informed that the current appliance (ex Gumeracha 24) is listed to be sold in the near future, in the mean time it will continue to run as Morphett Vale Alpha 24.

I believe the other Regional spare appliances are located at Mt Barker (a 24P that is currently at Kangarilla I think) and Goolwa.

What was going on at the station today Firestorm ??

Does anyone have a completed CFS risk assesment for the stowage and use of Oxygen Therapy equipment.

I know that a number of brigades are carrying it so I assume that someone has probably done a risk assesment at some stage on it. I am trying to avoid re-inventing the wheel, if someone else would be kind enough to send me theirs it would be greatly appreciated.

Ok some of the SAAS gurus on here will be able to answer this one, who is Medistar ??

I have heard a few transmissions on the scanner in the last couple of days relating to Medistar and them being dispatched on their way to do a retrieval. In one case the Comm's operator said something like "a retrieval should be on the way according to this new system but we haven't been told if they are or not".

So I assume some changes have taken place in regards to the retrieval service, are Medistar just Mediflight with a new name and some new shiny red uniforms or has there been another twist to this story.

I am guessing this is part of the major overhaul of the retrieval game some of you alluded to last year.

My company allows 5 days a year Emergency Service Leave, I can use these as I like but I have always kept them for the larger deployments, or any big jobs in our own Group.

I think in the Ten years I've been there I may have used 6 days. If I go over my 5 days I can then use my own annual leave without any problems.

No one on my deployment wore yellows on the plane on the way there or back.

I must admit that the CFA do present themselves very well in their blues, it does give a very professional appearance. Not sure that we should be taking our precious funding away from more important things for it though.

If people want to purchase their own greens there is nothing stopping you, I grabbed a few things from Stewart and Heaton recently with no questions asked.

I wondered about that too Alex, although there is not a lot in it.

Cherry Gardens are 13 minutes away
Kangarilla 15 mins
Coromandel Valley 18 mins
Morphett Vale 24 mins

Realistically it's probably quicker to get an MFS pump from St Marys, they would probably already be COQ to O'Halloran Hill anyway.