The Fire Brigade Employees’ Union (FBEU) believes damage to the Wickham wool sheds could have been alleviated somewhat if the nearby Carrington Fire Station was fully-operational.

It comes as Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) succeeded in its efforts last week to shut down facilities across the state in the event of a staffing shortage.

On 18 March, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) handed down a judgement that gave FRNSW permission to implement an order, which will place up to 56 stations – including Hunter-based Abermain, Carrington, Kearsley, Maitland, Merewether, Minmi, Morpeth, Swansea and Teralba – “temporarily offline”.

“This (ruling) is virtually condemning 30 communities to a roll of the dice as to whether they will have a fire truck turn up or not,” state secretary Leighton Drury said.

“Currently, stations without sufficient, safe crewing levels are supplemented by other firefighters at overtime rates, which is necessary to keep people safe.

“Taking them offline deprives a local community of a critical emergency response.

“It leaves any response up to fire stations from further away and reducing the number of fire trucks at any incident.

“That has significant risks for firefighters and community safety.”

Mr Drury said the IRC decision was a “disaster waiting to happen”.

“The NSW Government is responsible for funding FRNSW,” he explained.

“Their brutal agenda of budget cuts have forced the fire service to pursue cost savings like this, which is putting regional and rural NSW at risk.

“The NSW Government has turned its back on those people, abandoning firefighters and the communities they serve.

“The order proposed by Fire and Rescue NSW will put firefighters, homes, communities and lives at stake every day across the entire state.

“The NSW Government is allowing local fire stations to shut down to save money.

“Communities will suffer for their neglect of fire services in NSW.

“Our firefighters are rightly disappointed and angry at this decision.

“This is not the way a fire service should be run.

“We are calling on the Minister and Premier to intervene to save our local fire stations from being shut down.”

Mr Drury said everyone had seen, first-hand, the importance of emergency services over the past month.

“With flooding in the Hawkesbury, the fire stations at Richmond, Windsor and Riverstone faced isolation and provided an incredible service to their communities, responding to hundreds of calls to assist with life-threatening situations,” he stated.

“All three will now be allowed to be temporarily shut down.

“Ensuring every fire station has sufficient staffing is extremely important to allow our emergency services to respond quickly, and as fully as possible, to any emergency and natural disaster.

“On 1 March, the Wickham wool sheds fire broke out in the centre of Newcastle.

“The closest station, at Carrington, was offline due to a staffing shortage, being one of several fire stations on an old list already allowed to be shut down.

“If Carrington’s fire truck and four firefighters had been able to respond, they may have been able to assist in bringing that fire under control quicker, preventing the asbestos-fibre contamination that has occurred across many streets in the vicinity.

“Just last week, we saw the terrible tragedy at a boarding house fire in Newtown.

“This order could have seen several stations that responded to this fire sitting at stations in outer Sydney to cover those staffing shortages.

“It could’ve meant a slower response from stations further away.

“This order could have led to a much worse outcome for the community in Newtown, with more lives or buildings lost.

“When fire trucks in local communities fail to show up, and people have to wait an extra 5 to 20 minutes for the next closest fire truck to arrive, they will be cursing this government and wondering why their house had to burn down just so some bureaucracy and a heartless government could save some money.”

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