The ACT's Emergency Services Agency has failed through a combination of "mismanagement and incompetence" to keep enough fire trucks on the road to keep Canberra safe and is a "hindrance" to the firefighting service, a union leader has said.
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United Firefighters Union ACT branch secretary Greg McConville said the agency should no longer be allowed to handle the ACT firefighting service's operational issues and amounted to "lead in the saddlebags" of firefighters.
"We call on the ACT government to get the ESA out of emergency service operations and return the ESA to its original intent as an administrative and governance body," Mr McConville said.
"The community's safety cannot be left in such inept hands."
The union secretary also heavily criticised the planned expansion of a long-awaited health-screening program to cover Emergency Services Agency staff rather than just frontline firefighters, who are at risk of occupational cancers.
Mr McConville said 11 firefighting appliances were off the road while nine remained in service despite faults.
"Through the ESA's mismanagement and incompetence, at least 20 invaluable fire trucks are compromised due to breakdowns and faults at a time when firefighters are desperately short of rescue equipment such as the 'jaws of life' pumps and breathing apparatus maintenance," he said.
"It appears that every pumper in the ACT Fire and Rescue fleet has faults."
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Three new Volvo trucks are being sent interstate to retrofit shielding to their brake lines to prevent a repeat of an incident identified in the 2003 Canberra fires, a Gungahlin-based pumper has a broken speedometer first reported more than a year ago, and a Charnwood-based pumper has a broken radio, he said.
"Right now across Canberra in key locations like Fyshwick, Gungahlin, Woden and Charnwood, ACT Fire and Rescue Trucks are off the road or being driven with faults, leaving those local communities dangerously exposed during an emergency," Mr McConville said.
An aerial pumper was in service for a day last week before it broke and as returned to a repair workshop, he said.
A spokeswoman for the Emergency Services Agency did not address specific questions on firefighting vehicles from The Canberra Times.
"The ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) has over 300 specialised vehicles that we maintain, service and repair, as required, on a regular basis," the spokeswoman said in a written statement.
Mr McConville condemned the agency's decision to expand a long-awaited health screening initiative to cover agency executives and officers, as well as firefighters. The program was agreed in enterprise bargaining in 2020.
"We wrote the technical specifications for this health screening program in August 2021. Since then the technical specifications haven't changed, but the scope has been radically expanded by nameless executives to include themselves," he said.
"The World Health Organisation identified firefighting as a cancer-causing occupation in July 2022. We designed a health screening program based on those risks. For almost three years, firefighters have seen no action on cancer prevention, and now others want a 'piece of the action'.
"With all due respect, they are not firefighters, and they should stop pretending their risks are the same as firefighters."
A spokeswoman for the Emergency Services Agency did not respond to a specific question about this issue.
The agency is currently the subject of a snap review, which staff were told was aimed at improving the management of the organisation, which operates fire, ambulance and emergency response services in the ACT.
The former chief executive of Ambulance Victoria, Tony Walker, is conducting the review alongside an independent review team. Justice and Community Safety Directorate director-general Richard Glenn in March told staff he expected to be handed a report by the middle of the year.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
