CFA equipment failures spark safety concerns for firefighters

The fire burnt out more than 1600 hectares at Goomalibee, west of Benalla on Thursday, December 18, destroying six sheds, two tractors and one house.

The CFA threw major resources at the blaze, including 40 CFA appliances and 11 fire retardant bombing aircraft.

Five fire trucks were damaged in the fire.

Ms Cleeland said there was no criticism of the CFA performance.

“Their control and management of the fire was brilliant.’’

Country News also spoke to some volunteers who were unhappy that the vehicles th;ey were operating were up to 30 years old.

Ms Cleeland said she had spoken to several of those involved in fighting the fire, and the fire had brought to light issues that needed to be addressed before a big “campaign fire” happened in Victoria.

Goorambat-Stewarton and Whitegate were “impacted by direct flame contact”, while the Violet Town Group and Glenrowan tankers sustained frontal damage from radiant heat, and a fallen tree damaged the Taminick tanker.

CFA chief fire officer, Jason Heffernan said no CFA members were injured.

The Goorambat-Stewarton CFA crew issued a mayday call on the first day of the fire after what Ms Cleeland said she understood was from heat getting into the wiring underneath the truck and melting some of the accessories.

This tanker is one of the newer ones in the fleet, while another of the trucks that broke down was 30 years old and Ms Cleeland said volunteers on that truck “felt quite vulnerable”.

Ms Cleeland said the problems with the trucks - especially the new one – raised questions about whether they were being built to Victorian fire conditions.

She said plastic parts melting on the trucks was an issue that need to be addressed.

“They are building trucks from regional and metro regions the same, but they need to be different,” she said.

Mr Heffernan said the CFA takes the maintenance of its equipment seriously.

“All emergency response vehicles within the CFA fleet are maintained by our expert mechanical officers and are subject to annual maintenance servicing and an annual fire-worthy inspection by qualified technical staff to ensure they are in good working order,” he said.

Ms Cleeland also said the lack of communications between CFA trucks and other private units that responded was another issue that needed to be addressed urgently.

She said a large number of the units which responded were privately owned.

However, those in the CFA tankers and those in the private units are not able to communicate with each other.

An example she raised was that there were not clear communications with those in the private tankers as to where the quick-fill locations were.

Ms Cleeland said many of these private units were driven by former CFA members and were valuable in fires.

“We need to work out how they can work together for big campaign fires,” she said.

Ms Cleeland said she would be raising the issues that had arisen from this fire at parliament in the new year.