South East CFS brigades battle volunteer firefighter shortage in Mount Gambier and surrounds

From a two-person brigade to another struggling to man a truck, the South East is battling a chronic firefighter shortage as fire season fast approaches.

CFS firefighters battling a grass fire. Picture: CFS

The Lower South East’s firefighter shortage has hit catastrophic levels as the region approaches fire danger season on December 1, according to the SA Country Fire Service.

From Port MacDonnell to Penola – Kingsley, Wattle Range and Mount Gambier District CFS groups are urgently calling for volunteers.

Mount Gambier District group officer Graham Lamonds said rural brigades were most at risk including Tarpeena, which he estimated had around 10 members.

CFS brigades from surrounding districts were brought in to contain a 2017 Tarpeena house fire and prevent it spreading to neighbouring properties. Picture: Graeme Mellor

“We’re pretty lucky with the brigades that circle Mount Gambier because they can draw on people out of Mount Gambier but the outlying brigades, they’re always looking for more members,” Mr Lamonds said.

Yet, Mr Lamonds said in time critical situations calling on resources from further afield was flawed.

“It puts more strain on the other brigades, because if we get calls we’ve got to send extra brigades to cover those areas,” he said.

“If you’re sending brigades from further you call out times are longer so it can make a difference, certainly in a house fire or something like that.”

Over his 50 years with the CFS, Mr Lamonds has seen added work pressures and people moving off the land impact numbers and availability.

“Even though we’ve got reasonably good numbers with our brigades in town, they all work and during working hours it can be difficult to get people, we might be manning appliances with minimal crew,” he said.

“Ideally you want five or maximum of six on a crew but you want maybe a minimum of four to really to be able to respond and do something.”

While other areas had seen an increase in sign-ups off the back of last summer’s fire, Kingsley group officer Grant Fensom said numbers fell short at all of his brigades.

Across the six brigades there are less than 100 volunteers, including only two members at Blackfellows Caves.

“Of those 100, 40 might be what I could call active,” Mr Fensom said.

“As an area we’ve been lucky we haven’t had multiple fires on the same day at the same time.”

For Mr Fensom almost any incident requires calling around for backup until he finds enough volunteers.

Kingsley Group officer Grant Fensom (left) with CFS volunteers Matthew Hamm and Marianne Talbot.

“If we could pick up half a dozen per brigade it would be bloody good stuff,” he said.

“It doesn’t sound a lot but it would it would make a huge difference.”

Mr Fensom said the CFS’ ageing population and lack of members in their 20s to 40s added to the issue.

Wattle Range group officer Fred Stent is responsible for 19 CFS brigades and said numbers were down across the board.

“We’re always looking for volunteers,” he said.

At 11-years-old Mr Stint organised a group of friends to join the fire service and 53 years later he said it was important to recruit young people for the future.