A new agreement which will add 99 new firefighters to the ACT ranks over the next four years has been welcomed by the union, which has described it as "an enormous investment in community safety".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The agreement will swell the firefighting cohort in the ACT from the 339 currently funded to 438 by 2024.
Skills maintenance and training have been included in the package.
"They [firefighters] will undergo refreshers every three years in all their key skills," ACT firefighters' union secretary Greg McConville said.
"Under this agreement, Canberra's firefighters will be if not the best trained, among the best trained firefighters in Australia."
Health and wellbeing of the firefighters has also been addressed with members required to undergo an annual medical test and screening as a preventative measure.
Academic studies have found repeatedly that firefighters face high occupational health and safety risks not just through their everyday tasks of lifting and carrying heavy equipment and entering uncertain, hazardous environments, but also through exposure to smoke and chemicals.
"That [health screening] will be supported by a regime of on-platoon fitness instructors so that firefighters will be more resilient in dealing with the rigours of their profession," Mr McConville said.
ACT Emergency Services Commissioner Georgina Whelan described the agreement negotiations with the union as "a thorough and constructive process".
The as-yet-unknown component of this agreement is the required facilities and equipment.
Mr McConville said that there were two geographic areas of concern where current facilities were not at the level required to deliver optimum response and capability.
What you face when you take a fire engine out of that fire station is gridlock. It's a problem responding out of Gungahlin.
- ACT firefighters' union secretary Greg McConville
These include the fast-growing Gungahlin area, which currently is a small, shared facility with police and ambulance, and the inner north, where the Ainslie fire station is ageing and needing significant investment.
It is understood that the government will be making announcements about infrastructure improvements in coming weeks outside the formal ACT Budget, the announcement date of which has been postponed due to the national COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions.
"There is progress in that area [of facilities and equipment]," Mr McConville said.
"It's a very simple proposition that you can't recruit all these firefighters without knowing where you are going to put them."
"Gungahlin [shared fire station] is a problem for the next term of government.
"What you face when you take a fire engine out of that fire station is gridlock. It's a problem responding out of Gungahlin.
"The problem is that in a post-COIVID world, there's going to be real stretches on government budgets but Gungahlin and the inner north of Canberra has to be an area for deep consideration in the future for fire and rescue."
