'Phenomenal effort' responding to local incidents during bushfire season, acting fire chief says

The Country Fire Authority's emergency response times for the period of January 1 until the end of March have been released - a period in which the state's firefighters were fighting some of the worst bushfires in the state's history.

The quarter began on the day CFA crews from across the state were airlifted into Mallacoota to relieve the exhausted firefighters who had been working to protect the 4000 residents and tourists sheltering on the town's foreshore.

By this point fires had ravaged through 500,000 hectares in East Gippsland, with a further 1 million hectares burnt before the fires were brought under control by the end of the quarter.

During this extremely challenging period for many Victorians, CFA brigades across the state responded to 12,666 incidents (a reduction from 13,577 for the same quarter the previous year), with more than half (6196) requiring an emergency response.

During this period many CFA firefighters, including dozens from the Ballarat region, had joined strike teams to help fight the unprecedented fires, with the response time data highlighting that those who remained in the region were still able to continue to efficiently serve the Ballarat community.

For Hazard Class 2, which covers primarily residential, commercial and industrial centres in addition to high density community services such as schools and hospitals, the CFA has a response time target for a brigade to respond within 8 minutes.

In this category, paid brigades Ballarat City and Lucas responded to 100 per cent of emergency incidents within 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, the volunteer Ballarat Fire Brigade responded to 82 per cent of emergency incidents within 8 minutes, followed by Wendouree with 79 per cent and Sebastopol with 72 per cent.

For Hazard Class 3, which covers all urban areas not included in Hazard Class 2, such as residential areas and small industry, the CFA has a target response time of 10 minutes.

In this category, most brigades in District 15 responded within the 10-minute target.

Ballarat Fire Brigade responded well within the 10-minute target to all 10 emergency incidents it responded to during the quarter, as did Buninyong Mt-Helen to all 13 of the calls it responded to.

Wendouree Fire Brigade also responded to all 18 incidents it responded to within the target response time.

Meanwhile, Creswick Fire Brigade responded to 83 per cent of incidents within the target, while Ballan responded to 92 per cent of incidents within the 10-minute target.

Overall across the state, the community received a fire response within the standard response time in 88 per cent of emergencies - mostly consistent with previous quarters.

District 15 Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Chris Bigham said during this quarter the region's firefighters were working hard to support operations both in eastern Victoria and interstate.

For approximately a six week period, every three days the district was rotating 86 members to strike teams.

Almost 20 of the region's fire appliances were also deployed to assist those operations.

However, Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Bigham said there was still plenty of capacity left to support the region through incidents which took place in this region.

He said though some of the local response times to incidents - from house fires to car accidents - were a few minutes slower during this period, taking into account the sustained effort to fight the unprecedented fires across the state and nation, it was "a phenomenal effort".

"When I look at these results, knowing what else we were supporting during this time, I say it is an outstanding effort.

"Sure, there are some reduced percentages but knowing what else we were providing to the rest of the state, it would be impossible to keep up 100 per cent compliance," he said.

"I think we should be celebrating this outstanding effort of these firefighters, who continued to respond locally when we had so much commitment across the rest of the state and interstate."

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Bigham said there were local firefighters who are credited with saving townships in eastern Victoria, while there was also a significant response to contain fires locally, such as at Lexton and Allendale/ Broomfield.

He has been a responder for 40 years, since he started as a volunteer as a 16-year-old and said the 2019-20 fire season was "really arduous" for the region's approximate 2800 volunteer firefighters.

"It was a really arduous fire season and during such prolonged operations, people do get fatigued. There was basically no respite for them since November 2019," he said.

"But we had a commitment from all of these people. It has a dramatic impact on them personally, both in their working and family life but they selflessly gave up their time to go and help other people both on the other side of the state and interstate."

Related coverage: Are your smoke alarms installed in the right area of your home?

By the end of March, 400 homes had been lost, with East Gippsland, Sarsfield and Buchan devastated, in addition to large parts of north east Victoria.

The statistics show three Victorians died during the quarter - one in the bushfires and two in house fires.

House fires are statistically higher in winter, so firefighters urge all community members to have working smoke alarms.

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