By Casey Neill and Victoria Stone-Meadows
Career firefighters are expected to assume responsibility for Dandenong, Springvale and Hallam fire stations under reforms announced to end the long-running workplace dispute.
However Springvale’s professional and volunteer firefighters say they will stay united and work to maintain their working relationships.
“In the long run, it’s hard to say how it’s all going to pan out,” Springvale Fire Brigade volunteer Lieutenant Jason Petrovic said.
“In the long-run we’ll have a lot of questions on how things will change.
“For the short term it’s very much business as usual.
“Our relationships are really strong and we work really hard on maintaining them.”
State Emergency Services Minister James Merlino announced on Friday 19 May that paid CFA members would join with the MFB to become Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), leaving the CFA as a solely volunteer organisation.
The announcement came as the long-running dispute between the United Firefighters Union (UFU) and the CFA over an enterprise bargaining agreement continued.
FRV will take over areas currently covered by integrated stations – including Dandenong, Springvale and Hallam – and a new Fire District Review Panel will redraw coverage boundaries.
Volunteers and paid CFA members will continue to work alongside one another at integrated fire stations as CFA volunteers and FRV paid firefighters.
“The best part of 18 months to two years, it’s really impacted everyone,” Mr Petrovic said.
“There’s always murmurs. It’s negative publicity. That’s never good for the organisation.
“It hasn’t been a fun time for everyone.
“Regardless of paid or unpaid, we’re there to do a job, we’re there to serve the community.
“That’s what we do, day in day out.
“You can very easily let things get in the way, but it’s always been a focus for us that we don’t.”
The United Firefighters Union on Wednesday 24 May launched a public awareness campaign in support of the restructure.
UFU Victoria secretary Peter Marshall said the Fire Doesn’t Wait campaign was about raising public awareness of the state’s antiquated fire services being a risk to the public and firefighters.
“It’s been 60 years since the fire service boundary has changed, during that time there’s been enormous residential growth in the eastern suburbs, in the western suburbs, in the northern suburbs,” he said.
“People don’t understand for the purpose of fire cover, places like Dandenong, Springvale, Greenvale, Melton are deemed country.
“They do not understand that they do not get the same response as if they were in the metropolitan fire brigade boundary.
“Ultimately, we want to capture this opportunity to bring Victoria’s fire services into the 21st century and make our state safer for firefighters, and the people of Victoria.”
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV), the organisation that represents CFA volunteers, said in a statement that it welcomed any reforms that improved the way Victorian fire services worked.
“But these reforms need to be developed collaboratively and openly,” it said.
“VFBV will continue to urge the government to stop, take a breath and work with us constructively and in consultation with our people delivering the services on the ground to find a model that will modernise Victoria’s fire and emergency services, not take it backward.”
