The United Firefighters Union claims a ‘fire truck crisis’ at Newport’s Fire Station 42 recently forced its members to choose between using a faulty and inadequate truck or none at all.
According to UFU western district delegate, leading firefighter Charlie Williamson, ongoing issues with old and unreliable trucks at the station came to a head on the weekend of January 10 and 11.
“They (Newport firefighters) were put in a position where they had to decide to use a truck with no working pump and rely on a smaller pump which is inadequate for fighting structure fires, or put a truck out of commission knowing there wasn’t a replacement,” said Mr Williamson, adding that Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) had already informed the station that no spare trucks were available.
Newport firefighters eventually decided to keep their largest truck in service for the weekend with support from a smaller truck.
Mr Williamson said it was lucky no major fires occurred during that 48-hour period.
“With Newport only having an auxiliary pump last weekend they would’ve been unable to commit to entering a house fire and would’ve had to wait on a truck coming either from Altona or Brooklyn.”
The 21-year-old truck has now been put out of commission and replaced by a 25-year-old Ultra Large Pumper normally used for training.
Mr Williamson said both trucks being well past their 15-year service life, demonstrated just how out of date Victoria’s fire truck fleet was.
“The rolling replacement program for our fleet was stopped sometime in the last 10 to 12 years which means we now have a fleet this year with 60 per cent of trucks past their 15-year service life,” he said.
A spokesperson for FRV said the safety of firefighters and the community was paramount.
“At all times, Fire Rescue Victoria ensures that appropriate equipment is deployed to emergencies to protect firefighters and the community. There is no single point of dependency.”
The spokesperson said that because fire trucks were specially built, they could remain in service for long periods depending on workload.
They said FRV received seven new firefighting appliances last month, with more to come.
“FRV has 21 additional appliances currently in the design or construction phase. This includes five new Pumper Platform appliances, funded by a $15.4 million commitment from the 2024-25 Victorian Budget.”
