Fire-fighting row: RFS focus of dossier claiming litany of errors endangered public and property

AN explosive dossier of 112 fires in three months across Western Sydney claims the Rural Fire Service has repeatedly put the public at risk, fudged response times and let properties burn due to a litany of errors.

AN explosive dossier of 112 fires in three months across Western Sydney claims the Rural Fire Service has repeatedly put the public at risk, fudged response times and let properties burn due to a litany of errors.

The internal dossier, compiled by Fire and Rescue NSW, accuses volunteer fireys of taking up to an hour to turn up to emergencies and sometimes not even turning up at all, failing to answer calls for help, arriving with wrong equipment and refusing to ask or accept help from professionals when they obviously needed it.

There are even claims of case records being doctored by the RFS to make response times look better.

The leaked files, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, cover the period from October last year to January and detail responses to bush, grass, building and motor vehicle fires, fire alarms, hazmat emergencies and road accidents.

They expose the true extent of the bitter turf war and conflict between the RFS and its professional peers which has emerged in the aftermath of the devastating Tathra bushfires.

All of the 112 incidents detailed in the dossier occurred in Western Sydney, with the most recent on January 23 this year.

In more than a dozen instances, the document says, the public were placed in or exposed to “greater risk” because of the delayed response by the RFS when their crews were assigned to a job even if they were located further away than local Fire and Rescue brigades.

A grassfire which destroyed sheds and other property at Boundary Rd, Schofields, in January has been called into question regarding RFS response.

Emergency crews inspect damage at a road accident in Eastern Creek last October. The dossier claims communication problems between RFS units resulted in a 40-minute delay in providing fire protection at the fatal accident. Picture: Bill Hearne

In one house fire in Boundary Rd, Schofields, in early January this year, the log claims the RFS requested that Fire and Rescue not respond when a triple-0 call came in saying a grass fire was heading towards a home.

After 13 minutes, the paid brigade turned up anyway — against protocol — only to find the RFS had not arrived yet and several sheds were alight. They were burnt down.

Once the fire was contained, the RFS asked Fire and Rescue to leave the scene.

TATHRA: FIRE AND RESCUE OFFERS TO HELP DECLINED AS DISASTER LOOMED

“Public exposed to higher risk due to distance response. Building damage due to delayed response from RFS,” the dossier states.

At another January house fire, in Agnes Banks, the RFS arrived 16 minutes after the first call, but did not allow entry to the building as they did not have proper breathing apparatus equipment “to support internal operations”.

Scorched roofing on the Castlereagh Rd home in Agnes Banks in January, when the RFS did not allow entry due to lack of breathing apparatus.

In another incident, in a factory fire at Eastern Creek, the RFS declined assistance from Fire and Rescue only to call back minutes later and ask for them to attend.

Cherished photo albums were saved from a Marsden Park fire in January. Lagging response times to fires are under question.

The RFS allegedly never showed up to fight the fire — an allegation made several times in the dossier.

The RFS is also accused of taking 25 minutes to turn up to a retirement village in Ropes Crossing in December last year after being called to attend a fire.

In another instance affecting a nursing home, the RFS took 18 minutes to respond to a fire that had started in the kitchen and 80 elderly residents “self-evacuated”.

Luckily, no one was injured.

At a building fire in Homestead Rd, Orchard Hills, in November last year, there are accusations the RFS “deliberately avoided response of FRNSW appliances to this location, relying on RFS resources only, resulting in delays of 40-60 minutes for attendance of some RFS appliances”.

The dossier contains the allegation the RFS reduces its response times by a few minutes in its ICON computer system to give the appearance they arrive at jobs faster.

“Time discrepance RFS response delay of 25min for this incident,” the dossier claims in reference to a fire at Erskine Park.

About 80 residents of the Cherrywood Village nursing home in Llandilo had to “self-evacuate” when fire broke out in a kitchen on November 23 last year. The nearest RFS crew was paged two minutes after the RFS received a fire alarm alert at 12.13pm but there was no response.

In several instances, Fire and Rescue NSW crews are called to attend and then called back to say they are not needed. In others the dossier claims a single RFS firefighter turned up to battle bushfires — “a dangerous practice”.

The Daily Telegraph will provide the allegations to the bushfire inquiry established by Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant.

Neither the RFS nor Fire and Rescue NSW would comment on the dossier because of the inquiry.