CFA boost

By Emma Sun
United Firefighters Union National Secretary Peter Marshall said more career firefighters would come to Pakenham and Narre Warren.
“At the moment, stations at Pakenham and Narre Warren rely purely on volunteers, so they are not available 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Mr Marshall said.
“This puts an unfair burden on them, they can’t be expected to deliver fire service all the time.
“It’s great the government acknowledges that in order to support the volunteers, they need to have career staff present at all times.”
With populations in Pakenham and Narre Warren booming, this news could not have come at a better time, Mr Marshall said.
“In Pakenham, we are looking at around three staff members per shift, so that means they can expect around 15 to 16 new firefighters in total,” he said.
“Narre Warren will get two more staff members per shift, so that means there will be 10 more firefighters all together.
“This will have to be done in consultation with the volunteers, to ensure that they are satisfied with the arrangement.”
Michael Lia, of the Hallam fire brigade, welcomed the proposal.
“I think it’s very good,” he said. “It’s good for the community, it’s good for CFA and it’s also good for local volunteers. It gives them some assistance and can help relieve some of the work for them.
“We’re all here to do one job and that’s to provide a service to the community and we work together. There’s a huge capacity for major incidents in the summer so a bigger team effort makes a huge difference.”