`Dozens` of fire stations `lack staff`

At least 40 fire stations in country Victoria and outer Melbourne are dangerously
undermanned before the fire season, says Victoria's firefighters union.
United Firefighters Union state secretary Peter Marshall said a firefighter or
member of the public would die in a fire because the Country Fire Authority (CFA)
won't man those stations properly.
A confidential joint CFA and union panel has identified the stations which need
extra firefighters.
However, Mr Marshall said he was making the issue public because the CFA had gone
back on its word to provide professional firefighters - also union members - to
those stations in need.
"In 40 locations in the outer metropolitan area and country Victoria, the state
government and CFA are playing Russian roulette with people's lives," Mr Marshall
told reporters on Friday.
"They cannot guarantee a response in a time of need if you have a fire or are
involved in an incident in those areas.
"We could be having another press conference tomorrow talking about a deceased
person in a house unable to be retrieved or saved because no fire crew showed up ...
it's a very serious issue."
Fire and emergency services authorities around the world agree house fires need to
be reached within eight minutes for a likely chance of saving lives.
However, the CFA-Union panel's figures showed that this summer there was no chance
of firefighters reaching a house fire within eight minutes in the popular beach town
of Lorne and a 2.5 in 10 chance on Philip Island, another holiday hotspot.
In recent years, a firefighter had been badly injured at a Morwell fire and a girl
died at a Point Cook fire because of poorly-resourced stations, Mr Marshall said.
The issue has also driven a wedge between the union and Volunteer Fire Brigades
Victoria (VFBV), which accuses the union of bullying the CFA to improve pay and
conditions for professional firefighters at the expense of volunteers' interests.
In February, at the height of the Victorian bushfires, Mr Marshall claimed the CFA
had blocked city firefighters from helping fight the horrific blazes.
Parochialism and politics were the worst problems, some firefighters said, with some
CFA volunteers not wanting outsiders fighting fires on their turf.
"We've seen vested interest groups more worried about keeping their turf, hanging on
to their funding base, governments more worried about their political survival," Mr
Marshall said.
The VFBV's chief executive, Andrew Ford, said it was the CFA's job to decide how its
stations should be staffed.
"What Peter is not saying is that there are a range of staffing solutions including
recruitment, training and community programs to maintain and strengthen the
volunteer base," he told AAP.
Mr Ford said he respected the union was representing its members but believed Mr
Marshall's comments were linked to an enterprise bargaining campaign.
The state government released a statement backing the CFA to handle the issue.
Comment was being sought from the CFA.