Our station was empty for 2 hours, with 1 truck at a COQ and the other at a house fire........I asked for a COQ and got knocked back
We were covering your area, as well as Christies MFS for a fair whack of the night. Your station is not regarded as a 'strategic station' so you wont generally have a COQ there, the Group policy is that two neighbouring brigades must both be empty, then Morphett Vale will get a COQ from somewhere.
As for responding as an EMA brigade into MFS areas, the MOU between CFS and MFS says we need a 'B.A. qualified crew' some people take this to be 2 x operators, some say 4. The Mawson Group has told MFS (via the chain of command) that until we can train sufficient members in B.A. we will only guarantee a minimum of 2 B.A. operators.
As it stands at the moment if we don't get at least 2 B.A. crew for any type of incident in MFS area (rural fires included) we contact Adelaide Fire and let them decide if we go or not.