By Brendan Rees
Career firefighters at Cranbourne CFA fire brigade have officially transitioned to the new Fire Rescue Victoria service.
From Wednesday 1 July, Cranbourne fire station made the move to FRV, which brings together both the Country Fire Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade.
The CFA will become a volunteer-based only firefighting service with more than 50,000 volunteers across Victoria.
Cranbourne fire brigade is among 38 CFA integrated stations (consisting of both paid and volunteer firefighters) across the state to make the move to FRV.
FRV has been contacted for comment but it’s understood Cranbourne’s fire station has been renamed as Pumper 92 with all trucks featuring the new FRV badge.
Under the reforms, the state’s fire services boundaries will be changed to bring outer suburban areas of Melbourne under the control of FRV.
Andrew Swain, captain of the Devon Meadows CFA fire brigade, which relies on the support of Cranbourne fire brigade – primarily during the day – said it was a “bit early to see how the changes really to affect us”.
He said his station remained unchanged in terms of the brigade’s volunteers and fleet and was continuing to respond to jobs as usual.
“At a brigade level, at the minute, it’s just status quo; the pager goes off and we’ll turn out as per normal,” he said.
“There’s a couple of operational changes as far as transfer of control from FRV to CFA, but we haven’t really seen how that works yet.
“I still think it’s just early days and we’ll play it out and see how we go and if there’s problems or issues that need to be discussed then we’ll go through the appropriate channels to do it.”
According to the State Government, the reforms mean CFA will be able to “better focus on supporting and growing our vital volunteer firefighters across country Victoria”.
CFA acting chief officer Garry Cook said the change was the start of a new chapter for CFA, which will “continue serving their communities everyday as they always have through prevention, preparedness, response and recovery”.
“The delivery of vital emergency services is the number one priority of both organisations and service to the community will not be disrupted by these changes,” he said.
Meanwhile, State Opposition leader Michael O’Brien said the restructure would see “hundreds of CFA staff being stripped out and volunteers being sidelined”.
“Only the Liberal Nationals will guarantee that the CFA will be rebuilt and run as an independent fire authority that respects volunteers,” Mr O’Brien said.
