Firefighter plea

By Shaun Inguanzo
DANDENONG Country Fire Authority (CFA) is urging local employers to allow volunteer firefighters time away from work this month to battle more than 40 uncontrolled blazes in Gippsland.
Dandenong CFA fire officer Trevor Owen said the station would have to deploy its 32 volunteers to battle fires in Gippsland after a spate of lightning strikes last weekend led to an early fire season.
The station is expecting to deploy both paid and volunteer firefighters as early as this week.
“The issue for us in the lead up to Christmas is that employers are putting extra pressure on workers to get goods and services completed before Christmas,” he said.
“We are in a position where we have got volunteers which employers can’t let go away for any period of time before Christmas.”
Mr Owen said the CFA was sympathetic towards business and employers but had an obligation to serve the community in a time of emergency.
“We need the volunteers because it is the only way we can work to extinguish the fires,” he said.
“We recognise there aren’t enough career firefighters here, so we will be heavily relying on volunteers being deployed.”
Mr Owen said the task of letting work go would be almost impossible for the station’s self-employed volunteers.
“We’ve also got self-employed people who can’t afford to go away because they have to earn money to pay for Christmas gifts for their families,” he said.
Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce president Renae MacNamara said the situation was “an issue of turmoil”.
“A lot of employers are not in the position where they can allow staff t go away for weeks,” she said.
“But anyone who has ever been in a situation where they might lose a house to fire will probably say you have to do what is the greater good.”
Ms MacNamara urged businesses to support the CFA and be as flexible as possible.
“I understand this means a lot of challenges but fire waits for no man or business,” she said.
Mr Owen said the CFA’s Region Eight contained metropolitan-fringe stations such as Dandenong.
He said these non-rural stations would be the primary feeders to summer strike teams.
The CFA also expects officers from the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) to come to Dandenong for local callouts over the summer because the CFA expects Dandenong’s 48 career firefighters to be stuck battling blazes in North and East Gippsland.