A retired firefighter and Corlette resident with close to 40 years experience with Fire and Rescue NSW fears the Tomaree Peninsula is drastically under-equipped to deal with fire emergencies due to population growth and lack of resources.
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Geoff Zipper worked as a professional firefighter for 36 years before retiring in 2006. He is calling for the only fire station on the Tomaree Peninsula, the Salamander Bay Fire Station, to be manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
At present it is staffed by full-time firefighters from 8am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday – during the remaining hours of the weekdays and all weekends, emergencies are responded to by retain (part-time) firefighters who receive a pager or call.
“My fear is that someone will lose their life,” Mr Zipper said. “Don’t get me wrong, the retain firefighters do an amazing job, but they get a pager and they have to respond from their workplace or home – it could be 15 minutes before they leave the station.
“A house can go up [ in flames] in just three or four [minutes].”
Mr Zipper said that a combination of only one main road in and out of the Bay area, an increase in multi-storey developments, a growing aged care sector and the fact that NSW Fire and Rescue is often the first respondents to other emergencies such as car accidents, has created a risky situation that calls for immediate action. He cited recent incidents such as the death of two men in a motor vehicle crash on Georges Road, Salamander Bay in the early hours of April 13, A woman injured in an icecream van explosion at Salamander Bay on Sunday, April 22 and a teen severely burned at Corlette, also on a Sunday on May 6 as specific times when a 24 hour emergency response would have been ‘beneficial’.
“All those incidents happened out of hours,” he said.
“Support [from neighbouring stations at] Raymond Terrace or Morpeth could be 40 minutes away.”
It's one road in and one road out, you get one accident and you're in trouble. It might not be highly likely but one it's only got to happen once.”
His concerns have been echoed by the Fire Brigade Employees Union state secretary Leighton Drury and Port Stephens MP Kate Washington.
Mr Drury said that resources across the state had not been keeping up with the demand of population growth.
“The Tomaree Peninsula is a case in point,” Mr Drury said.
“The area’s fire services have not kept pace with the area’s development. Consequently, the Tomaree Peninsula’s residents are not getting the services they require and therefore, are at a heightened risk.”
Port MP Kate Washington said it wasn’t the first time she’d heard concerns such as Mr Zipper’s raised, after convening a meeting with the Shadow Minister for Emergency services, members of the community and several members of the firefighting community.
“I don’t think [parts of the community] fully appreciate that the station isn’t [staffed] 24 hours a day,” Ms Washington said.
“What I was being told [at the meeting] was about inadequacies in resources. It’s a significant issue that I don’t think many people are aware of.”
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However, Fire and Rescue NSW [FRNSW] Assistant Commissioner for Metropolitan Operations, Paul McGuiggan said the operational requirements of the Salamander Bay station were continually reviewed to ensure the ‘community’s needs were being met’.
“Salamander Bay and the surrounding area is currently well-protected 24 hours a day by a mix of permanent and retained firefighters,” Assistant Commissioner McGuiggan said.
“The station is staffed by a Station Officer and firefighters from 8am-4.30pm, Monday-Friday, and a Captain and 17 retained firefighters are on call to respond to emergencies 24/7.
“Firefighters at Salamander Bay are supported by a network of 15 FRNSW fire stations in the Lower Hunter Region. This local network is also part of a larger network of FRNSW and NSW Rural Fire Service resources in the Newcastle area.
“FRNSW takes into account a number of risk factors when rating a station’s staffing capacity including (but not limited to) population growth, socio-economics, transient population, property density, infrastructure and the number of hazards in the area. Under the current rating, the staffing structure at Salamander Bay is sufficient to meet the community’s needs.
Mr Zipper said that he believed, after living in the area for more than 20 years, that the area’s dynamics were changing significantly enough to warrant full-time staffing of the station.
“There’s all these high-rise buildings going up – if they need an aerial device to tackle a fire from the outside, they’re waiting 40 minutes for it to come from the [station] at Mayfield East,” Mr Zipper said.
Ms Washington said she had already written to the NSW Minister for Emergency Services Troy Grant, highlighting the concerns of Port Stephens residents.
A letter of response came from the Parliamentary secretary for Justice, David Clarke on behalf of Mr Grant. In the letter, seen by the Examiner, Mr Clarke states; “FRNSW reviews its service delivery to the community on a regular basis. At this point in time, I am advised there are no plans to change the service delivery in the Port Stephens area as the current arrangements meet the needs of the community.”
Ms Washington added that NSW sHadow Minister for Emergency Services Guy Zangari had heard the message loud and clear from his meeting with Port Stephens stakeholders.
“Guy certainly took away with him a clear message of what's needed,” she said.
“Firefighters are the first responders to nearly everything - if they are called to one motor vehicle accident then they are not available if something else happens elsewhere.
“This needs to be addressed.”
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