Fifty-year firefighter says better tech, trucks needed - not dress uniforms

The comments come from Darlington brigade member Nick Cole who has been fighting fires for as long as he can remember.

"I was about 13 or 14," he said.

"I used to get off the school bus and when the fire brigade was burning the fire breaks I'd walk from the school bus and get on a truck. I'd spend the rest of the day helping on the trucks and learning that way.

"The secretary at the time said 'If you're going to keep doing that we better get you registered so that way you're insured'.

"You can't do that anymore of course, but that was one of the best ways of learning. The old blokes would take you under their wing and teach you about wind changes and how to look after yourself."

Mr Cole said while there'd been lots of improvements and changes since he started volunteering, one thing had stayed the same.

"Now the trucks are fully enclosed up to about your bellybutton, there's good crew protection and it's much better than it was," he said.

"There have been a lot of advances, but generally if we get a bad fire coming through the first thing that goes off is the electricity. Communication goes out the window.

"With the radio, there's still lots of blackspots, the frequency gets jammed and people panic.

"A few years ago I went to a fire up past Daylesford in a strike team, I remember we were the last truck, we were finishing off a little job and going down this road and there was a house just starting to burn.

"We had no water so we couldn't do anything about it and we couldn't radio anyone down there. By the time we topped up and came back it was well alight.

"There's lots of communication blackspots everywhere, the highways are good as a rule, but up here when you get out in the back blocks it's a bit ordinary."

Mr Cole said he also disagreed with where some of the funding was being assigned.

"We are a volunteer organisation, especially out here we're all farmers with plenty of other things to do," he said.

"One thing that really irritates me is the CFA now is issuing what they call dress uniforms for when you go out to functions.

"I'm not going to a function in a CFA uniform. I'd rather get a new truck or some equipment to actually help us on the fire front rather than going out to a function (and) looking smart. That doesn't interest me.

"Our truck up here at Darlington is supposed to be renewed, it has a rollover time and they said it's not going to happen for another few years. They just keep pushing it out, well, they just spend all the money on the wrong things."

A CFA spokesperson said vehicles would be replaced "as and when it can, within the budget it has available".

"Operational vehicles are a key part of our response capability and our focus is always on whether the vehicles are safe, appropriately equipped and fit for purpose, regardless of age," the spokesperson said.

"All emergency response vehicles within the CFA fleet are maintained by our expert mechanical officers and are subject to annual maintenance servicing and an annual fire-worthy inspection by qualified technical staff to ensure they are in good working order."

The spokesperson also confirmed new radios were on the way.

"CFA is currently rolling out more than 18,000 new radios across the state which will improve brigades' communication in the field and will improve battery life," they said.

"CFA brigades are currently issued with replacement batteries on request to ensure operational capability and volunteer safety is maintained.

"CFA does a lot of work to identify any coverage issues and undertakes remedial actions to support those areas, sometimes with the use of communications vehicles and trailers.

"There are very few blackspots in the Darlington area other than low spots near the creek which is managed by moving to slightly higher ground."

Finally, on uniforms, the spokesperson said CFA volunteers had called "for many years" for clothing to assist when representing the organisation within the community.

"The government provided funding for this uniform as part of Fire Services Reform and this uniform is now proudly worn by many thousands of CFA members as they provide services to the community including community education, incident management support and interstate assistance," the spokesperson said.

"It is an important part of members being able to establish their bona fides as a CFA member and member of Victoria's vital emergency services."