By BRIDGET SCOTT
DISTURBING union statistics suggest that Cranbourne residents have less than a 50 percent chance of being rescued in a fire.
According to the United Firefighters Union only 46 per cent of alarm and structure fires were attended owing to a lack of sufficient firefighters to undertake a rescue mission.
Union delegate and Cranbourne firefighter Geoff Barker said these statistics were “devastating” and the Cranbourne Fire Brigade needed more staff.
Mr Barker said that there were only three occupational firefighters based there, however, in order to commence operations at the scene of a fire, a minimum of four personnel must be present.
“We cannot commence operations until there is sufficient crew,” he said.
“We can’t go inside if there are only three of us there.”
Earlier this year, the Cranbourne News ran a story which quoted a CFA spokesperson as saying that the Cranbourne CFA was “adequately resourced with career staff.”
Mr Barker said subsequently there had been an incident where the Cranbourne Fire Brigade was called to a fatal house fire and despite arriving on scene within three minutes, was forced to wait on scene for seven more minutes until a second truck from a neighbouring station arrived.
Mr Barker said in these seven minutes, fire crews tried their best to ventilate and reduce intensity of fire with limited personnel.
Mr Barker said that while there were “expectations that volunteers will also respond” they were often constrained and had been called to other jobs.
He added that he did not feel like they were meeting the expectations of the community due to the lack of staff.
A CFA media spokesperson said that the CFA had not changed its stance on the situation at the Cranbourne Fire Station.
‘CFA is volunteer and community-based fire and emergency service,” they said.
“Cranbourne CFA is adequately resourced with career staff working shoulder to shoulder with volunteer firefighters at incidents and emergencies.”
“CFA utilises a “multi-brigade” response model, where at least two different brigades turnout to virtually every incident, including rescues.”
Mr Barker said the Napthine Government’s $66 million cut to the fire services in 2012 had delayed the delivery of 342 extra professional firefighters agreed upon by the previous Labor Government after Black Saturday.
“Cranbourne residents are paying for more in a Fire Service Levy now and should be entitled to the extra firefighter that could make the difference between a rescue and a recovery,” he said.
