Firey with broken leg waits four hours for help in bushfire zone

A young firefighter was forced to wait four hours for medical help after breaking his leg in what unions are claiming is the latest in a string of bungles and mishaps emerging from the restructured NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

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A young firefighter was forced to wait four hours for medical help after breaking his leg during a fire emergency in remote bushland.

The man, who is believed to be in his 20s, has undergone surgery at Lismore Base Hospital’s where he was admitted in to the intensive care unit.

The Australian Workers Union (AWU) claims fire management protocols, which recommend the deployment of an ambulance or have “medevac provisions” during major or high risk fire events were not followed.

The firefighter was injured while working on the remote Moggs Swamp fire near Glen Innes. Picture: Dan Peled

However, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) claimed appropriate emergency procedures were in place, and but blamed “severe” wet weather that followed the fires for hampering the rescue.

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The firefighter — who is employed as a junior NPWS field officer — was injured while working on the remote Welshes Road fire near Glen Innes two weeks ago.

A memo sent to union members last week by AWU assistant secretary Paul Noack said an NPWS investigation was underway.

“The fact that our injured member had to wait 4 hours is disgraceful and shameful,” he wrote.

In a separate incident, an NPWS ranger who suffered a heart attack on site was saved only because there was a South Australian firefighting crew nearby that happened to have a defibrillator.

The union has been campaigning to have all NSW vehicles used in fires — not just the fire trucks — fitted with the lifesaving devices.

The firefighter was treated at Lismore Base Hospital.

The incidents are among a string of bungles and mishaps emerging from the restructured NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, which also include the failure to refill helicopter fuel drums ahead of the bushfire season, inexperienced officers being sent to a fire without a team leader and a senior fire commander being given a petrol-fuelled Toyota Corolla “admin car” instead of the recommended diesel 4WD.

Veteran NPWS firefighter and union delegate Garth Toner helped draft the fire management manual following the devastating 2001 fires.

He said the deployment of ambulance officers was vital during major fire events.

“We recommended ambulance deployment after another of our officers was injured when a tree fell on him last year, but management refused,” he said.

“It is all about the dollar.”

Hundreds of NPWS, State Forests, and NSW Fire Brigade officers are working alongside NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers in fighting an unprecedented number of blazes burning up and down the NSW coastline in one of the most intense fire events the state has experienced.

The parks service has been blamed, in part, for failing to adequately prepare for the bushfire season, despite the agency undergoing multiple restructures over the years with the government merging it within the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment early this year.

RFS, NSW Fire and Rescue, NPWS officers and local residents fight a bushfire encroaching on properties near Termeil on the state’s South Coast. Picture: Dean Lewins

Jobs have been downgraded with university qualified rangers replaced with field officers and now field officer position are being temporarily replaced with “gardeners” as recently advertised on the Seek online job search agency.

The federal government has bowed to pressure to investigate whether the bushfire crisis was triggered in part by the failure to properly manage vegetation in national parks, forests and on private properties.

An NPWS spokesman said both incidents occurred during Section 44 fire emergencies, where agency staff work under the control of the NSW RFS.

Both fires had approved emergency response procedures in place, which were activated in response to the incidents, he said.

“The extraction of the NPWS officer from the remote site he was working was undertaken in accordance with medical advice, but was severely hampered by the weather,” he said.

He said the NPWS officer who had suffered a heart attack had earlier passed a rigorous fitness test.

The agency would be reviewing the need for defibrillators in consultation with other emergency response organisations, he said.

Originally published as Firey with broken leg waits four hours for help in bushfire zone