The Fire Rescue Commissioner has rejected claims in the media last week that Fire and Rescue Victoria (FRV) will not have the capacity to respond to bushfires this summer.
The Commissioner, Ken Block (pictured) said the media story was not factual and the policy internal paper it referred to was in draft form, remained unsigned, and had not been consulted upon or endorsed by FRV leadership.
“In addition, FRV was not approached by the outlet and given the opportunity to provide comment to address the matters raised and inaccuracies before the article was published,” Commissioner Block said.
“I wish to assure you that our longstanding emergency response and incident control arrangements remain in place and have not changed as a result of the fire and rescue service reforms,” he said.
“The reforms mean that CFA has been empowered with the responsibility to lead direct bushfire response in country Victoria, with support from FRV and that FRV has the responsibility to lead direct bushfire response in the Fire Rescue Victoria area of coverage with support of CFA.”
Commissioner Block said that one of the advantages of the reforms was that Victoria’s fire and rescue Agencies now had the ability to share resources seamlessly across the state.
He said FRV had a number of pumper tankers that would be available for strike team capability based on any increased risk over the summer, at the request of the CFA.
“FRV crews continue to respond to bush and grass fires in the FRV area, undertake size up, establish command and control structures and work in partnership with CFA crews in the frontline firefighting effort,” he said.
“Additionally FRV personnel will always play key roles in a range of functional positions in incident management teams, and specialist support.”
Commissioner Block said Victorians should be in absolutely no doubt that the community was well protected for this coming fire season.
