South Australia’s emergency services are responding to more incidents than ever. Photo: South Australian Ambulance Service.
South Australia is one of the few jurisdictions in the country to have increased funding for emergency services in the previous financial year, according to a new Commonwealth report.
In 2024-2025, South Australia’s total government grant funding was increased by $9.8 million compared with the previous financial year.
This boost comes at a time when the state’s emergency services are responding to more incidents than ever before.
The Report on Government Services shows that the South Australian fire services responded to 33,419 fires and other emergencies in 2024-2025, a rise from 32,770 reported in the previous year.
In addition, the number of SES incidents also jumped from 7267 in 2023-2024 to 8025 in 2024-2025. The government attributed this increase to floods, storms and other natural disasters.
South Australia’s SES also experienced a large spike in the number of women volunteering with the service. An additional 75 women over the previous financial year signed up, increasing volunteer numbers across all age groups.
“Our emergency services are busier than ever, and this is why the Malinauskas Government continues to invest in training, equipment and other resources,” Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services Rhiannon Pearce said.
“I’m really pleased to see the SA SES is attracting more women than ever before and that they continue to see volunteers increase across all age groups.”
Other figures from the report show that the total number of system-initiated (false) alarms has fallen from 8164 to 7666, while the number of deliberately false calls has remained the same.
Rescue activity unrelated to fire has remained steady over the past five years, with 7591 incidents in 2020-2021 compared with 7508 in 2024-2025.
Injury hospitalisation relating to fire has continued to drop, in accordance with a five-year trend. This number reached 10.5 hospitalisations per 100,000 people.
Extreme weather-related hospitalisations have decreased at a steady rate since 2019, while heat-related hospitalisations declined from 14.8 per 100,000 (2019-2020) to 8.6 per 100,000 (2023-2024).
Insurance claims connected to fire-related (non-bushfire) events, rose both in the number of claims and the value.
South Australia maintains a strong capacity to fight fires, with 10,720 firefighters throughout the state.
“South Australia is fortunate to have such professional emergency services, including the dedicated volunteers who give their time to keeping our communities safe,” Ms Pearce said.
