“…job cuts are ill-conceived and stupid”
CFA at work
Victoria, Australia’s Country Fire Authority (CFA), the state agency providing fire service outside Melbourne, Geelong, and other cities is cutting 164 positions on the brink of the 2014 fire season.
The United Firefighters Union of Australia (UFUA) Victoria Branch is taking strong exception to the cuts.
Peter Marshall, UFUA Secretary, quoted in the Guardian, said, “We know fires are becoming more intensive and more frequent and here we are cutting 10% of the CFA’s workforce. It just doesn’t add up.”
Victoria is about the size of the state of Utah with a population of 5.8 million, most of whom who live in the greater Melbourne region.
CFA has about 1650 career staff and about 59,000 volunteers for about 1200 brigades.
Career staff are eligible for full membership in the UFUA; volunteers may be associate members.
Kim Wells, a government spokesperson, also quoted in the Guardian, referred to the UFUA claims as “absolute rubbish” stating that the number of career firefighters and volunteers has risen.
The UFUA has stated, “In 2009, in the wake of the Black Saturday bushfires the CFA asked the Labor Government for an extra 684 full-time firefighters. The Brumby Government agreed to fund 342. The current Government has gone to the Federal Court to be released from this obligation.”
Black Saturday from Space
173 people were killed in the Black Saturday fires, the highest ever loss from bushfires in Australia.
The proposed cuts target management and training, areas that often receive short shrift in firefighting organizations, as if properly trained firefighters appear by magic.
On December 2, 1998, a devastating bushfire killed five firefighters in Linton, Victoria.
According to Australia Broadcasting, “Among the fleet of volunteers, a crew from Geelong West brigade drove an hour to answer the call. The five men were on their way to a water point when what was described as a ‘fire wave’ engulfed their tanker. All perished while, just metres ahead, another tanker and its crew survived.”
The extensive coroner’s inquest resulting from the Linton deaths specifically cited lack of firefighter training as a contributing factor in the fatalities, a concern only exacerbated by the CFA’s decision to cut training positions.