CFA volunteers receive a briefing at the fire ground at Goomalibee.
More needs to be done to ensure the safety of CFA volunteers at large fires, a local politician has said.
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State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland’s comments came after a fire at Goomalibee swept through just over 1600 hectares, and saw 40 CFA fire appliances and 11 aircraft fight the fire over a couple of days.
People in private water tankers also helped fight the fire on their properties.
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.
CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan confirmed five fire trucks were now out of action after damage at the fire.
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.
Mr Heffernan said no CFA members were injured.
The Goorambat-Stewarton CFA crew issued a mayday call on the first day of the fire after, Ms Cleeland said she understood, heat got into the wiring underneath the truck and melted 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 needed 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 took 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.
Just over 1600 hectares was burnt in the fire. Photo: Phoenix Aerial
Photo by
Phoenix Aerial
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 that 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.
She said some of the problems could involve a quick fix, such as having a regional radio channel that private operators could also tune into.
Others, such as the issues with the trucks, would take time, but something needed to be done.
Ms Cleeland also pointed out that her comments were aimed at the Victorian Government and how things could be done to make sure that the same issues did not crop up again at bigger fires.
“It is not a criticism of their (CFA volunteers’) performance,” she said.
“Their control and management of the fire was brilliant.
“I anticipate this is the start of a challenging period for fires.
“We should be jumping up and down about these red flags.
“Unless we are talking now, these things won’t get fixed.”
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