Fire Rescue Victoria fails to meet targets as UFU pushes CFA takeover

The targets FRV has failed to meet have been revealed, yet despite its teething problems union members want more CFA territory.

Off target: Fire Rescue Victoria Commissioner Ken Block is managing a service that has not met its performance targets.

Fire Rescue Victoria is struggling to meet its performance targets, after it was formed from the merger of the MFB and 38 CFA stations on July 1 last year.

Victoria’s Fire Services Implementation Monitor Niall Blair has found FRV’s career firefighters have not met response times for fire and road rescues, nor ensured its operational fleet and training programs are fully implemented.

Unlike the CFA, the FRV is not even reporting fire-related fatalities.

Yet despite its teething problems the United Firefighters union is charging ahead with a campaign calling for FRV to be given even more CFA territory, warnings Victorians serviced by volunteers they are “not protected by professional career firefighters”.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria said the UFU “should concentrate on its own performance before it contemplates further expansion across Victoria”.

Mr Blair found FRV had:

NOT met its target of responding to 90 per cent of structure fires within 7.7mins, although it did manage 88 per cent in the June quarter.

NOT met its target of responding to 90 per cent of road rescues within 13.5mins, although FRV told the monitor this was in part due to it now having to operate in CFA zones.

CONSISTENTLY did not meet the target throughout 2020-21 of containing 90 per cent of structure fires.

CONSISTENTLY fell slightly below target throughout the year on ensuring 85 per cent operational fleet availability, mainly due to a shortfall in its tanker fleet.

NOT met its target of 100 per cent of specialist capability staff maintaining their skills – sitting at 50-60 per cent.

NOT initiated 100 per cent of FRVSafe investigations within 14 days, with just 69.7 per cent meeting that target.

Mr Blair said “while FRV has met or is close to meeting most key operational performance indicators, it has experienced prolonged IT issues which have hampered FRVSafe investigation response times.

“FRV has been unable to meet staff engagement targets throughout the year, limited by the business rules governing community and staff engagement indicators.”

As for the CFA Mr Blair said community trust in the brand and service delivery remained relatively high.

“I commend CFA’s commitment to transparency and continuous improvement.”

Mr Barnett said “CFA performance not only meets the same standards of service (as FRV) across most categories, but actually excels on many other measures like community engagement, prevention and recovery”.

“VFBV categorically rejects the notion that CFA brigades are providing a less service simply because volunteer firefighters choose not to be paid.

FRV provide the following responses to The Weekly Times.

Why has FRV not reported on fire fatalities within areas under its control?

Fire services only report on preventable fire-related fatalities. Preventable fire fatalities are those that exclude homicides, suicides and deaths where the fire was not contributable.

Why has FRV not met its target of containing 90 per cent of structure fires?

Over the June quarter, FRV firefighters achieved a result of 85.2 per cent for the containment of structure fires. A factor that has contributed to this result is an increase in suspicious and incendiary fires. Suspicious fires are typically reported later than accidental fires leading to poorer containment outcomes.

Why has FRV not met its total operational fleet availability?

Appliance availability is monitored daily and scheduled servicing and maintenance is adjusted to ensure FRV has enough appliances to maintain service delivery. FRV has extended the heavy rescue replacement program with an additional four appliances.

FRV has ordered an additional 24 pumpers to replace ageing fleet, and 12 additional aerial pumpers. The delivery of some of the appliances has been delayed by Covid restrictions, as they have been partially built interstate.

Why has FRV not met its 7.7mins response time target of 90 per cent for the June quarter?

Factors that can impact on station maintenance area response times include larger station areas resulting in longer travel times, road congestion and road works, traffic collisions, rail crossings and boom gates and extreme weather conditions.

Strict restrictions were in place throughout most of the June quarter in response to COVID-19. These restrictions had some impact on response times due to additional precautionary measures put in place to protect the community and firefighters, including FRV requiring firefighters to wear extra protective gear.

While it is disappointing that not all targets have been met, Victorians should be reassured that the safety of our community is paramount to everything we do.

Why has FRV not met its road rescue response times target of 13.5mins 90 per cent of the time for the last three quarters?

FRV did not meet its internal road crash rescue (RCR) target of 13.5 mins throughout the year however FRV met the response standard in accordance with the Victorian Road Crash Rescue Arrangements.

The small sample size of incidents may be a contributing factor to this result.

Following fire services reform, some regional areas of Victoria where response times were previously set at 20 minutes have a reduced response time standard of 13.5 minutes.

Why has FRV not met its target of 100 per cent of specialist capability staff maintaining their skills – sitting at 50-60 per cent.

Due to the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation and the Victorian Government’s tightening of restrictions, a decision was made to suspend some station-based skills acquisition training.

This decision was not taken lightly, but was implemented in the best interests of firefighter and community safety.

FRV firefighters are still receiving important skills maintenance. FRV will continue to review and monitor the situation and FRV’s training schedule, with a focus on ensuring

critical operational capability needs are maintained.

Why has FRV not initiated FRVSafe investigations within 14 days – June quarter 69.7 per cent – target 100 per cent.

This measure is an indicator of how quickly incidents are opened in FRVSafe, once reported. The objective of this measure is to optimise the process of hazard risk remediation.

The main driver of this quarter’s result has been an ongoing issue with the integration of HR information system data. A workaround is currently in place to manually notify supervisors that they have a report requiring attention.

There is no impact on service delivery or the safety of Victorians as a result.”