However, District 22 Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Pete Dedman said the team was "satisfied" with the latest data, given the challenging conditions fire crews experienced during the period.
“We are satisfied that the local community has received good service throughout this quarter,” he said.
“This quarter was a period in which Shepparton firefighters helped battle some of the worst bushfires in the state’s history, and adapted to operating within challenging COVID-19 restrictions.”
The latest data, from January 1, 2020 until March 31, revealed the Shepparton CFA brigade responded to 179 incidents during the quarter, with 92 of these being Hazard Class 2 incidents.
Of these 92 incidents, which were primarily residential areas, including commercial centres, clusters of industrial and high-density community spaces, 90 per cent were responded to within the standard of eight minutes.
This was a decrease from 93% per cent for the same time last year.
The data also showed that 90 per cent of emergency incidents were responded to by the Shepparton CFA within seven minutes and 50 seconds, an increase of 34 seconds compared with the same quarter last year.
Mr Dedman said CFA crews were faced with a number of challenges every day which, alongside the changing circumstances, could affect their response times.
“There are many circumstances that affect brigade response times, including time of day, traffic conditions and travel distance,” he said.
“The local district is constantly monitoring response times and working with brigades to identify risks, issues and vulnerabilities that may impact the brigade’s response.”
Across the state for the period, CFA brigades responded to a total of 12,666 incidents, down from 13,577 during the same quarter the year before.
Sadly three people died in fires during the quarter, with one losing their life in the Victorian bushfires while the other two died in house fires.
CFA Acting Chief Officer Garry Cook said the data also highlighted members’ commitment across all types of emergencies, including bushfires, house fires, road accidents and emergency medical response.
“It goes to show that while a lot of focus was on bushfire safety during summer, residential fires were also devastating to our community,” he said.
“We’re now in winter, where the risk of house fires is statistically higher, and I urge allcommunity members to help us save lives by installing smoke alarms in all bedrooms and living areas and checking them regularly to make sure that they are working.”
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