by Cam Lucadou-Wells
United Firefighters Union has criticised the breakdown of a fire truck as crews extinguished a blaze at a gym in Noble Park North.
The Dandenong FRV pumper broke down about 90 minutes after the fire at the corner of Overseas Drive and Princes Highway was under control at 12.50am on 14 August.
Thus, it had no impact on the firefighting effort, according to the FRV.
“The appliance was taken for repair and replaced at station.”
However, UFU argues it shows that the fleet is “crumbling” in an “increasingly dangerous” situation.
When the pump failed, the firefighters were pulled out of the building because they effectively had no water, a spokesperson said.
The change-over with a replacement truck caused a short delay.
“Victoria is in the grip of a fire truck crisis. Our fleet is crumbling, and our communities are paying the price,” the UFU posted on social media.
The FRV spokesperson said “appropriate equipment is deployed to emergencies to protect firefighters and the community”.
“There is no single point of dependency.
“We continually utilise our full fleet across the state to ensure a high level of availability for emergency response.”
FRV has funding for five new platform pumpers in the 2024-25 state budget at a cost of $13.7 million over four years.
Its fleet of more than 200 firefighting road appliances will be joined by 23 new vehicles that are being built.
The new vehicles include two rehabilitation units, an electric fire truck, three breathing apparatus support vehicles, 12 heavy pumpers, four heavy rescue vehicles and an ultra large pumper.
Emergency services were alerted to the building fire at the corner of Overseas Drive and Princes Highway about 11pm on Tuesday 13 August.
FRV crews arrived minutes later, finding the 1500-square-metre building fully engulfed in fire.
