Cade Lucas
Firefighters at Brooklyn Fire Station were forced to use a plastic bag and duct tape to cover a faulty window on one of their trucks last month, the latest incident in what the United Firefighters Union (UFU) claims is a crisis in Victoria’s fire truck fleet.
The incident occurred at Fire Station 45 – Brooklyn on Monday, October 28, when the rear window on one of the station’s trucks wouldn’t close due to an electrical fault.
With no back-up vehicles available due to other faults, crews were forced to tape a plastic bag over the rear window in order to keep it on the road, a situation Fire Rescue Victoria firefighter and UFU western district health and safety representative Kat Dunell said was completely unacceptable.
“This 17-year-old truck shouldn’t still be on the road anyway – it’s more than two years past its use-by date,” said Ms Dunell, adding that the same truck had had a persistent air leak for over a year and emitted large amounts of smoke when idling, affecting its capability.
“When it is called out crew have to wait about 45 seconds to get enough air pressure in the appliance.“
The UFU claimed almost half of FRV’s truck fleet is out of date and that its members have reported more than 400 truck faults in the past 12 months.
It said the problem is especially acute in the western suburbs, where a growing population and a large amount of heavy industry is spreading firefighting resources dangerously thin.
“The same firefighters are being repeatedly forced to use out of date trucks to contain some of the toxic and intense fires in the state,” said Ms Dunnell, adding that aerial appliances had to be brought in from the northern suburbs to fight a factory fire in Laverton North last week
A spokesperson for FRV said the safety of both firefighters and the community was paramount.
“At all times, Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) ensures that appropriate equipment is deployed to emergencies to protect firefighters and the community,” the spokesperson said.
“There is no single point of dependency. We continually utilise our full fleet across the state to ensure a high level of availability for emergency response.”
FRV confirmed that the truck at Brooklyn had been repaired and that its fleet was in the process of being updated with 28 new vehicles on the way, including the state’s fire electric fire truck due to enter service next year.
