Budget Cut's - Station Closures

[Scotty]

Marine 1 main issue was the half-baked approach by the NSW Government to fire fighting needs in Sydney Harbour.
Either they should have been totally involved in fire fighting with a much stronger commitment or not at all. They tried to make Marine 1 a compromise which will always fail especially with budget cuts.

I think the problem was more that the harbour is the responsiblity of Sydney Ports etc - not FRNSW, and is already sufficiently covered. Why would they waste money on a service that isn't needed?

[Chrisco]

I can think of 3 boat fires in the last few years in Middle Harbour
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-08/a ... re/1356242 at Roseville Marina
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fire-destroys ... -ttv3.html FRNSW commandeer a boat
and
http://www.news.com.au/national/barbecu ... 5876002609
The response time for a fire boat from west of the Syd Harbour Bridge would lest be about 20min

[Scotty]

But I don't believe any of those fires were in a FRNSW area - all covered by RFS or Sydney Ports, who both already have a presence on the water. Why waste the money doubling up when the areas are already serviced?

[JimK]

I can think of 3 boat fires in the last few years in Middle Harbour
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-08/a ... re/1356242 at Roseville Marina
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fire-destroys ... -ttv3.html FRNSW commandeer a boat
and
http://www.news.com.au/national/barbecu ... 5876002609
The response time for a fire boat from west of the Syd Harbour Bridge would lest be about 20min

Plus adding that FRNSW boat was not manned, so add the time to respond from the Station to Sydney Water Police, get the boat going and travel time....

[JAFO]

I can think of 3 boat fires in the last few years in Middle Harbour
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-08/a ... re/1356242 at Roseville Marina
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fire-destroys ... -ttv3.html FRNSW commandeer a boat
and
http://www.news.com.au/national/barbecu ... 5876002609
The response time for a fire boat from west of the Syd Harbour Bridge would lest be about 20min

Plus adding that FRNSW boat was not manned, so add the time to respond from the Station to Sydney Water Police, get the boat going and travel time....

I will admit, I have not had much to do with the Marine 1 project living and working in Sydney's outer west, but have had the pleasure of being on course/training with Firefighters who were part of the Marine 1 Project and spending a couple of days with Port Authority Vessel/Firefighting Crews.

So the rundown I got from some of the firefighters involved with the project, and from my readings, the issue surrounding Training seemed to come down to the Level of Training required and the level deemed necessary by management and the way in which it was to be achieved . . . as said by a couple of firefighters it was a joke. My understand is to operate Marine 1 NSW Maritime was saying members needed to hold a Coxswain Certificate, and how this was going to be achieved seemed to be the issue with training . . . how the training was to be delivered . . . a big issue with FRNSW when it comes to cost issues.

when Marine 1 was available to respond . . . in most counts Marine 1 did proved a quicker response to most incidents on Sydney Harbour then what the Port Authority Vessels of the time were able to provide, as Marine 1 was a bowl rider vessel and was stowed with Firefighting equipped and Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA) Sets to allow for immediate response . . . it just needed a crew.

Port Authority Standard Operational Procedure, is that Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA) Sets are not stowed on Port Authority Vessels, so on notification of an Incident, Port Authority Vessel/Crew must return to Base and pickup Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA) Sets before proceeding onto the Incident.

Interesting to note too, Port Authority Crews are not permitted to board a Vessel to conduct Firefighting operations, all firefighting operations are the domain of FRNSW and Port Authority crews will only engage in first attack fire fighting or engage in non-bording firefighting operations under the direction of the FRNSW Officers. So another response issue comes up here as well, the need for one of the Port Authority Vessels to picked up FRNSW Crew en-route to the incident or within close vicinity to the incident location to commence firefighting operations.

The main killer for Marine 1 in my view, came down to Training and Staffing issues. We were looking at the lost of positions at City of Sydney Fire Station to provide the crewing. Most of us Union members believed Marine 1 should have had a Permanent Crew assigned to it, but not at the cost of existing positions but New Permanent Positions assigned to Marine 1, not the cross crewing system which was proving to not be workable given the training situation.