Design bungle robs CFA teams of water

Andrew Mathieson
New trucks will send crews from three Geelong CFA stations into battle underarmed this summer.
Additional equipment has put the trucks over their weight limit, forcing the brigades to carry either less water or fewer crew members.
Geelong City, Belmont and Corio stations will operate the trucks as the region negotiates a predicted season of extreme fire danger.
Geelong City operations officer Nick McGuiness said the new trucks had caused “some controversy” among CFA firefighters.
The CFA’s engineering department had designed the trucks with chassis at maximum weight, Mr McGuiness said.
He believed the trucks should have been built to 75 to 80 per cent of total capacity, which would also have allowed crews to reach fires faster.
“The facts are that we are now compromised operationally and our engineering hasn’t done its job properly,” Mr McGuiness said.
“They’re trying to buy as many trucks as they can and operations are being compromised by appliances that are overweight.”
Mr McGuiness said the stations would have to either cut truck crews from five to four or carry hundreds of litres less water to offset the weight difference.
The trucks already had 700 litres set aside as reserve from a 2700L capacity to protect crew in case of entrapment in fire. The reserve was a recommendation from an inquiry into a 1998 Linton bushfire tragedy, in which five Geelong West CFA members died.
Mr McGuiness said the CFA was adapting a “very quick administrative fix” on the trucks.
“They say just drop 300 litres of water out of it and we’ll put a mark on the side gauge, so that’s where we fill it up,” he said.
“There’s nothing preventing anyone from overfilling it.”
Region 7 CFA operations manager Bob Barry poured cold water on fears the trucks could put volunteer firefighters in danger.
Mr Barry said the trucks would still handle firefighting missions “safely and competently”.
“We’re not talking a large amount of water,” he said.
“The trucks will still be operational, still functional and still have at least the minimum requirements in reserve for safe fire fighting.
“I don’t think the safety aspect is affected in the vehicle.”