SES, Rural Fire Service website closures fire up angry volunteers

Thousands of volunteer firefighters have lost their independence after an online bureaucratic reshuffle, days before the start of the winter fire season.

Thousands of volunteer firefighters from rural brigades have lost their independence after an online bureaucratic reshuffle, days before the start of the winter fire season.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, the state’s peak firefighting body, shut down websites for the Rural Fire Service and the Fire and Rescue Service, last week without officially notifying the 1400 rural fire brigades.

Many volunteer rural firefighters are angry over the website closures.

The State Emergency Services website was also ditched with traffic from all three sites diverted to the overhauled QFES website.

Both fire services said they had not been officially consulted and the change in web addresses had caught them by surprise.

Rural Fire Brigade Association of Queensland representative Ben Heilbronn said the Rural Fire Service page disappeared overnight leaving many rural property owners at risk and not being able to get fire permits.

Rural Fire Brigade Association of Queensland representative Ben Heilbronn said rural property owners were having trouble navigating the new site to find fire permits.

He called on the QFES to restore the sites until adequate consultation had been completed and suggested a transition period for the old websites to run in conjunction with any updated site.

“This has come in the middle of our Operation Cool Burn, which aims to reduce bushfire fuel on rural properties,” he said.

“Rural property owners have about two months to go online, get a fire permit and organise a fire warden before the traditional fire season peaks.

“To change the website details now without any notice is irresponsible as some of the crucial online links to this vital information have been broken in the middle of this operation.

“For years our page was the site that told the public about fire danger ratings, where fires were burning and most importantly where to get hold of their fire wardens.”

United Firefighters Union secretary John Oliver agreed and said the website change was a waste of money.

United Firefighters Union secretary John Oliver said the website change was wasting money.

“This is bureaucrats from QFES trying to gain brand recognition at the expense of the frontline responders,” he said.

“With an impending review of QFES, the time and money would be better spent looking at the structure of the organisation rather than the website design.

“Noone spoke to us about this move and now the Rural Fire Service has lost its website.”

QFES said the previous websites were outdated and not user-friendly but consolidating the three sites made it easier to access information.

“This was a project that commenced in 2017,” QFES said.

“Early analytics show users are getting to the information they need quicker, and spending longer on the website.

Rural firefighters say their former website gave property owners the information about where localised burn-offs were taking place.

“Indirect cost savings will occur through the reduction of managing multiple websites.”

Some of the state’s 42,000 volunteers took to social media to air their opinions.

Rural Fire Service Queensland volunteer Elaina Mitchell said she was angry when she went to the RFS website, only to find it no longer existed and had been replaced with the QFES website.

“I rang the area office and they had not been told it was happening and didn’t know it was happening,” she said.

“We have had an RFS website for years. Nobody asked us if we wanted to get rid of it.

“This is just BS from Kedron.”

Others including Nicolene Smal said the new website was an improvement.

“It has everything in one place with information available about all services,” Ms Smal said. “The content is dynamic and there are a few new features.

“I found the navigation much better than the old one.”