Albany fire chief hoses down concerns

The City of Albany has allayed fears for local volunteer firefighters after Auditor General Colin Murphy raised concerns in a report to Parliament last week.

City of Albany fire control chief Derek Jones said even at a local bush fire brigade level, senior officers were very attuned to member welfare, juggling the pressure of their firefighting efforts with normal work commitments.

"Safety is being improved all the time. We have come a long way over the past couple of years," he said.

"We are advanced in terms of getting expensive gear such as appliances and protective equipment and this continues to evolve.

"We are very aware of problems that can develop (with fatigue) and are conscious of managing the volunteers' commitment to fighting fires and work commitments."

Mr Jones was responding to the Auditor-General's report on the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, which said DFES had improved the management of its volunteer workforce but still had work to do in some areas.

Issues included an upward trend in volunteer turnover, a declining number of volunteer groups, especially in regional areas, and concerns about fatigue.

Mr Jones said a culture was developing among local bush fire- fighters of seeking time-out if facing long hours at an incident.

Even those volunteers attending big external fires such as the Boddington and Bullsbrook blazes last fire season were carefully monitored.

"It was not a long campaign, only four days, but we were cycling people through to manage fatigue factors," he said.

Mr Jones said constant problems facing local brigades were the ebb and flow of numbers, with a surge of interest in membership whenever an incident arose.

"We have issues relating to the ageing of the volunteer group and are waiting for the next generation to put up its hand to help out," he said.

Mr Jones said the Emergency Services Levy had helped ensure all 16 brigades in the area had modern firefighting equipment and he praised DFES for providing access to the equipment.

Before the end of the year, the first appliances will undergo improvements in safety equipment as part of a Statewide rollout.

"There are 32 appliances that will be out of action when they go into a workshop for five weeks, but we will have loan vehicles replacing them," Mr Jones said.