Row hots up over numbers

A STOUSH is emerging among Tasmanian firefighters over volunteer numbers, with some warning a serious lack of crews this summer could lead to “catastrophic” uncontained blazes.

An anonymous group of United Firefighters Union members told the Mercury that although the Tasmania Fire Service had 5000 volunteers on its books, only 1200 to 1500 of those were “active”.

One member said with this year’s conditions – hot weather, dry fuel loads and a lack of rainfall for three years – the shortage of numbers could mean homes or even entire communities could be lost.

But the TFS denied the claims, saying there are 3900 active volunteers on its books and that it was as prepared this year as any.

“Potentially we’ll lose communities. People’s houses will burn down, people’s businesses, potentially there will be deaths,” a UFU member said.

“Last year we had one of our biggest bushfire seasons in recorded history. We saw last year that there were a number of big fires, particularly in the South-West, that we were unable to contain for weeks.”

He said increasing the number of active volunteers should be a priority for the TFS.

He also said many volunteers were over 60 and could only work an hour at a time and others had full-time careers so couldn’t spend four or

AMBER WILSON

five days on a serious without any income.

UFU Tasmania branch vice president Leigh Hills said the union had repeatedly raised the need to increase manning levels.

But TFS acting deputy chief officer Shane Batt said it had 3900 active operational volunteers who performed tasks onthe-ground, with another 1100 active support members like juniors and background workers.

He said the average age of volunteers was 44, with 70 per cent under 50.

Mr Batt said it was a challenge asking volunteers to leave their workplaces for days at a time but said the “selfless” volunteers were “always there for us when we need them”.

“We’re preparing as we would any other year. We’re normally self-sufficient for the first four to five weeks, where we can provide our own volunteers, but after that we may tap into the national resource sharing council,” he said. blaze