Have you ever wondered why we seem to have a fire station in just about every suburb ? A speedy response is the critical requirement in dealing with a fire emergency. Most fires can be contained if the brigade arrives in the early stages, but once again stretched budgets are proposing changes that may alter that situation.
At present, when a member of a fire crew calls in sick, an off-duty officer is called in and this adds to the overtime bill. Budget restraints require economies and it is proposed to take the fire station off line for the day when manning drops below a critical level. Presumably, the remaining crew would then be available to complete the roster at other stations depleted by sick calls.
The sticking point is the loss of a suburban fire station and it's capacity to quickly arrive and deal with a fire emergency. A city like Wollongong has a big central fire station with many appliances and multiple crews, but the quickest response will usually come from the nearest suburban fire station, with a single appliance and a small, dedicated crew. Response time will be governed by multiple factors. The distance involved. The time of day and the traffic situation. The inclination of other road users to slow down, pull over and give the fire appliance right of way.
Until now, we have lived with the assurance that our local fire stations are always manned and able to respond to a 000 fire call. If the plan to stand down stations proceeds, that may not be the case in the future. Many northern suburbs residents may remember a horror incident when the fastest possible response by many fire stations was unable to save the life of a young woman innocently driving to university in the morning traffic peak.
She was waiting for a green light at an intersection in Fairy Meadow when she was rear-ended by a car at high speed whose driver was suffering a seizure. The impact shunted her car into a petrol station and it ended up on it's side against the fuel pumps. The young woman was hopelessly trapped. The fuel tank was leaking - and the vehicle caught fire.
Petrol stations are well equipped with fire extinguishers and the staff responded, snuffing out the flames, but they quickly reignited. Severed electrical wires were shorting and it was impossible to get to the car battery to isolate the circuits. The 000 line was still open and fire crews were being informed of the developing crisis.
Staff from another petrol station across the road grabbed their fire extinguishers and joined the fight. It was a matter of containing the situation until the big appliances arrived with their foam tanks and higher capacity.
Appliances were coming from many directions. Their sirens could be heard and their flashing lights could be seen in the far distance, but this was morning peak traffic and the accident had the roads at a standstill. The hand held extinguishers were starting to run dry. The situation was becoming desperate. Firemen were jumping off their stalled appliances and running through the traffic with equipment, but it was all too late. The last extinguisher spluttered dry - and the car exploded, incinerating the young woman.
The 000 emergency line is a great comfort to most people. The three things we will most likely need in any sort of emergency will come from trained medics, armed police or skilled fire fighters. It gives us peace of mind to believe that these three services can be relied upon to provide a quick response to our call.
Keeping that response as near to " immediate " as possible is a matter of priorities. The money situation in the state budget is often tight, but when it comes to priorities the average person would cheerfully accept that the necessary economies be directed just about anywhere other than on these three services. After all , these are the three that we need when an emergency that is threatened to end our lives is occurring.
Can there be any priority more deserving than that ?
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