A volunteer remote area firefighting team for Victoria

This year’s Victorian fire season has officially started, with fire restrictions commencing in parts of the north west of the state this week.

The CFA declared the first Fire Danger Period (FDP) for the 2024-25 fire season on Monday, 28 October and noted that ‘Victorians can expect a hotter and drier summer and communities should be preparing their properties and creating a Bushfire Survival Plan’.

As declared fire periods are announced we need to think about how prepared we are for the risk of fire.

The Victorian government has invested heavily in fire fighting capacity, including aircraft and on ground personnel. But we can always use additional capacity.

One important thing to do is to stop small fires before they become uncontrollable blazes. ‘First strike’ firefighting is important, and these crews need special training to be able to get out into our national parks and wild places where lightning can cause many fires in a short period of time.

Environment group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has proposed that the Victorian government set up a remote area firefighting team (often called RAFTs) within the Country Fire Authority (CFA). This group would be tasked with working with career firefighters within Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV). Most other states already have these groups – they add firefighting capacity cheaply, as they do not need to be kept on the payroll when things are quiet. But they can be deployed quickly when needed on days of high fire risk.

FoE also propose that the government set these RAFTs in a way that will allow people living in urban areas – outside the usual catchment to volunteer with the CFA – to commit their time to protect the wild places we love.

This idea needs funding – please contact the state environment and emergency services ministers and urge them to support this good idea.

You can find out more here.

Or mention them on social media.

Twitter and Facebook > @JaclynSymes @Steve_Dimo

A simple message is fine:

I support the proposal for a volunteer remote area firefighting team for Victoria @JaclynSymes @Steve_Dimo. It will help protect our national parks and wild places. #climatefire 

Sharing the burden of firefighting

Having volunteer teams based in urban areas would:

• represent a new way of building firefighting capacity,
• build diversity within the CFA by attracting young people and people of diverse backgrounds,
• help relieve the burden on existing rural and regional fire brigades who are expected to provide people for deployment as strike teams through summer, and
• could be delivered at a very small overall cost to the taxpayer.

Climate change is supercharging fire seasons. It is putting new burdens on existing firefighters and their families and on state budgets. Providing opportunities for city based people to volunteer their time in firefighting efforts would be a smart response to the reality of longer and more intense fire seasons.

Open letter

There is also an open letter which urges the Victorian government to establish these teams. The AFCA is a signatory.

We, the undersigned organisations, call on the Victorian Allan Government to establish a Volunteer Remote Area Firefighting Team open to urban Victorians to join.

It is clear that to tackle the climate-fuelled bushfire seasons of the 21st century, Victoria needs to strengthen its firefighting capacity by unlocking new sources of volunteers within the state.

We call on the Victorian government to create a volunteer remote area firefighting team (RAFT) that Victorians living in urban areas could join. 

Victoria’s urban areas are full of people who love the bush, and who would rise to the opportunity to help defend the places they love from bushfires.

https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/open_letter_vic_raft

DISCLOSURE: a number of AFCA volunteers are employed by Friends of the Earth, including the author of this post.