Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Thee RFS trucks don't appear to have the personal protection systems that Victorian ones have, but apart from that, they seem to get a lot of work out of their trucks.. As far as I can tell, which is not much, the fire response in NSW has been managed very well. The NSW Government could perhaps throw quite a few million at new vehicles and facilities.
Older ones don't, newer ones do. Service life for a firefighting appliance (not just RFS tankers, FRNSW urban appliances too) is about 20 years, so you'll see a mix equipment levels depending on the age of the vehicle.
Originally Posted by
Sunfish
My main beef is that we need to adopt aboriginal burning practices and refrain from putting out "natural" fires in wilderness areas caused by lightening strikes
That approach was precisely how we ended up with situations like Canberra in January 2003. That's also why nowadays they knock those down fires hard and early, using attack aircraft and RAFT teams.
Originally Posted by
Sunfish
This is a matter for Government policy, not the fire services.
It's got nothing to do with government policy, or "greenies" or any other such nonsense. Climate is getting hotter and dryer. The number of opportunities to conduct hazard reduction burns safely are growing fewer every year, and the manpower available to conduct those burns is also very finite. A lot of these places are also simply not accessible.
Originally Posted by
JustinHeywood
What, you think they're racing home from work, get changed and go out and fight fires all night, then go back to work? That's not how it generally works.
I've done just that. Knocked off work at 5pm, jumped in the RFS tanker at 7pm and driven towards Sydney. Got to Springwood around midnight, and went into property protection until around 7am. I didn't go straight back to work though, I kept at it for 14 hours a day for the next four days, before being relieved by another crew.
The average volunteer has a job and a family. Their annual leave will run out eventually, and while they're protected against reprisals from their employer for going off to fight fires, they don't get paid when their leave runs out. Strangely enough, the kids still want to eat and the bank still wants their mortgage payments every month whether there are bushfires or not.