TODAY if your house catches fire in Warrnambool it's likely firefighters will arrive in mere minutes, and be able to contain the blaze to its room of origin.
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Only 20 years ago that was improbable, and the damage was likely to be much more devastating.
Warrnambool Fire Station operations officer Paul Marshall said professional firefighters had to respond and be in the truck on the road within 90 seconds.
"That makes a big difference for Warrnambool residents," he said.
"Fire builds rapidly in the first few minutes. If you live in Warrnambool then you can be reasonably confident you will have a fire truck at your door within six minutes of receiving the call. That generally means the fire will be contained to the room of origin. If a fire starts in a room close the doors and windows to that room. That stops the smoke spread and limits the heat spread. It also limits the fire spread and stops oxygen flow."
Mr Marshall said less houses were now completely ruined by fire.
"We lose less properties in Warrnambool now than when I first started some 20 years ago," he said.
"We commonly had houses fully involved in fire back then because there was only one person on duty. That one person had to take the fire call, take all the details, respond to volunteers via a paging network and eventually after doing all that get in the fire truck and go. That in itself meant that it was a slower response than what it is now, and when they got there they were on their own. You didn't have a crew to jump out of the truck like we do these days."
Senior officer Robert Howell said fire alarms were also now mandatory in all houses now, which meant earlier detection.
Mr Marshall said there had been plenty of improvements in protecting people.
"We went from one person on duty to 10 now," he said.
"That means that within Warrnambool we will have at least eight people respond to pretty much every fire call, in addition to our volunteers. We have more people to do more work and that means it gets done quicker and ultimately means less damage to property."
Between October and December last year Warrnambool firies attended 130 incidents.
When we meet people we often meet them on the worst day of their life, and our hope is that we can make that day a little bit better.
- Warrnambool Fire Station operations officer Paul Marshall
Mr Marshall said having to respond within 90 seconds was a key difference between an integrated station and a volunteer station.
"Obviously our volunteer stations aren't manned and they have to get to the station and then respond," he said.
"It's probably easier for us in a degree as we are here all the time. We have the capability to get in the truck and go. It's a case of stop what we are doing if we are training here or elsewhere and go. Volunteers have to drop their job or get out of bed and get to the station."
He said the CFA were there to help in people's time of need.
"When we meet people we often meet them on the worst day of their life, and our hope is that we can make that day a little bit better," he said.
He said it was important to test smoke detectors once a month to ensure they worked.
Mr Howell said it was imperative all households had a fire plan and could enact it if there was a blaze.
People are welcome to call into the fire station to discuss their plans.
"We are about to head into winter so it's a good time of year to remind people to get their heaters and fireplaces serviced prior to use," Mr Marshall said.
"There can be a build up of lint and we commonly find in that first cold week we will have a couple of house fires as a result of heaters that haven't been serviced."
Electric blankets and wood heaters also need checking to ensure they are safe.
Mr Marshall warned people to ensure they followed guidelines and realise there was still fuel around if they were burning off after summer restrictions were lifted.
"Make sure you are allowed to burn within your local government area," he said.
Mr Howell said there had recently been two grass fires around Warrnambool that were of a significant size and had potential to grow.
"It just proves it is incredibly dry and fires will burn on any day," he said.
Mr Marshall said the St Patrick's Day bushfires had been at the forefront of people's minds after the one year anniversary of the devastating blaze.
"We were involved in that. Most of our appliances were committed on the night and the following days," he said.
"That's front of mind given we just had the 12-month anniversary. We are happy we have not had a similar fire this year, although the eastern part of the state has."
Mr Howell said district firefighters had attended the Gippsland fires as well as a strike team of tankers.
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