CFS volunteers say they’re ‘burnt out’ as SAAS, SAPOL rely on regional volunteers for assistance

Country firefighters say the pressure to assist paramedics and police crews could “burn them out”, leaving the state unprotected from bushfires.

The mounting pressure on regional firefighters to do the work of paramedics and police officers is “burning them out”, with senior officers fearing a mass exodus of volunteers will leave South Australia without enough members to protect them from bushfires.

Veteran firefighter and Region 6 Group Officer Kym Eagle said pressures on members were rising to act as fill in paramedics, SES officers and police.

Mr Eagle, who has been a CFS member for 36 years and is now a group officer in the Port Lincoln area, on Wednesday told a Parliamentary Committee he was concerned volunteers in regional areas would soon “burn out”, leaving the state with “no community service” to protect them from fires.

According to the CFS Promotions Unit, as many as 30 per cent of calls to regional CFS locations in 2022-23 were to provide assistance for other government agencies.

“Not only can it contribute to poorer patient health outcomes, but our volunteers are being called to assist more often and aren’t necessarily trained to a high enough standard,” Mr Eagle said.

Mr Eagle said volunteers could “burn out” as expectations rise.

“Clearly we also rely on the generosity of people to volunteer their services and if we continue to increase demands on them, how long will it be before we have major problems recruiting and retaining volunteers as well?”

He said SA Police officers often rely on CFS volunteers when they can’t attend jobs, with the SES also leaning on the fire service for help.

“I can’t tell you how many times that I and my colleagues have received phone calls while at emergencies by the local SAPOL officers,” he said.

“We would reasonably expect them to attend, but they ask us for a situation report and ask if we can collect certain details for them and pass on information on the people involved, purely because they cannot attend themselves through either being too busy or not having sufficient human resources.

“Clearly this is something that should not become the norm for our volunteers or even an expectation and yet it is our reality.

“I do need to stress in the strongest terms that by using these examples, it is not an attack on these agencies or their people. It is purely an example of our reality and the extra workload our volunteers are contending with, and a very real concern that we will burn them out and then our community will be left with no community service that does cover the breadth of this state.”

Mr Eagles’ concerns were echoed by others in the CFS community, with another member telling The Advertiser calls to help other agencies have dramatically risen over the last few years.

“We don’t mind helping, but yeah, it’s gotten a lot harder to manage everything recently,” the member, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

“It’s definitely taking its toll, and we already have a hard enough time keeping people. The added pressure is only turning more away.”

Brett Laughlin, CFS Chief Executive, spoke at a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Brett Laughlin, CFS Chief Executive said volunteers could choose which agencies they could assist. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Speaking at the committee, CFS chief executive Brett Laughlin said volunteers could however choose which other agencies they could assist.

“The CFS quite literally supports every industry in this state,” he said.

“It’s right that we pick up some of that work but that is a challenge for our people.

“We’ve got mechanisms that volunteers can reject some of these calls, but they do them because they’re selfless, dedicated people, and they know that if they don’t do it, their community doesn’t get that response and so there are some aspects that do create a burden and our people have picked up work that isn’t historically in their unit.

“There’s some scope to ensure that that extra work beyond the traditional fire and rescue is recognised and well supported so people can do that where they want.”

Originally published as CFS volunteers say they’re ‘burnt out’ as SAAS, SAPOL rely on regional volunteers for assistance