By BRIDGET SCOTT
DISTURBING Union statistics revealed last year suggest that Cranbourne residents have less than a 50 percent chance of being rescued in a fire.
According to the United Firefighters Union, only 46 per cent of alarm and structure fires were attended owing to a lack of sufficient firefighters to undertake a rescue mission.
Cranbourne CFA worker Jeff Barker shared his concerns over the statistics with the News and said he felt as though they could not meet the needs of the community due to a lack of staff.
Mr Barker said that there were only three occupational firefighters based at his station. However, he said, in order to commence operations at the scene of a fire, a minimum of four personnel had to be present.
They had to rely on the availability of volunteers or crews from other stations to arrive on scene in time.
A CFA media spokesperson responded to the claims and said, “Cranbourne CFA is adequately resourced with career staff working shoulder to shoulder with volunteer firefighters at incidents and emergencies.”
