4 November 2011

Fire Brigade no more. Hello ACT Fire and Rescue

| johnboy
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The ABC brings word that the ceaseless bureaucratic quest to ensure no organisation’s name can be easily remembered has moved on to a rebranding of the fire brigade.

The ACT fire brigade will change its name to ‘ACT Fire and Rescue’.

The change will be made gradually, with ACT Fire and rescue vehicles and personal protective equipment to be renamed as they are replaced.

The Chief Officer Paul Swain says he suggested the name change to better reflect officers’ duties.

“What we do in Canberra is unique,” he said.

“All of our rescue component is integrated into everything that we do.

“All our front-line appliances all have a full complement of rescue gear so we don’t call on specialist units like they do in the cities of you know Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane, we do the lot.”

UPDATE: Simon Corbell’s media release is available.

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creative_canberran6:25 pm 04 Nov 11

The Media Release and claims by the ACTFB are nothing short of total BS.

From the Fire & Rescue NSW: “Every fire engine in NSW carries rescue equipment, including rope rescue capabilities for heights and depths, and breathing apparatus for confined space rescues and hazardous atmospheres.”

It further goes on to state how the specialist road rescue components were long ago redistributed to front line appliances.

The ACTFB’s website clearly states they have specialist units for Hazmat, vertical rescue and confined space rescue.

The only reason they’re making a big deal about having rescue components “integrated into everything that we do” is because they don’t have enough vehicles or people to allow for heaps of specialist, individuals units, just as ACTAS and ACTPOL have more limited specialist units than interstate services.

The reality is an election is coming up and within weeks of the Libs starting to gear up, Labor wants some announcables. That’s why they announced new stations that won’t be built for 3+ years and now a name change no one needs.

guinness said :

Unique alright.. Where else do you get paid to sleep during nightshift? )

Security Office At The Lodge,But You Have To Get Plastered First.

“Unique alright.. Where else do you get paid to sleep during nightshift? )”

Au contraire, Guinness, firefighters are not allowed to sleep during their shift. They are, however, permitted to “recline”.

Ah, Jimbo, I stand corrected. You are right, they ‘recline’. Hopefully they get in enough reclining so they can front up for their day jobs. )

jimbocool said :

Au contraire, Guinness, firefighters are not allowed to sleep during their shift. They are, however, permitted to “recline”.

Ha! I pictured a firey reclined on a chair with a pair of those open-eye novelty glasses on. “Just resting my eyes!”

guinness said :

Unique alright.. Where else do you get paid to sleep during nightshift? )

Au contraire, Guinness, firefighters are not allowed to sleep during their shift. They are, however, permitted to “recline”.

Funky Claude1:36 pm 04 Nov 11

thehutch said :

arb said :

“What we do in Canberra is unique,” he said.

Unique? NSWFB changed their name to “Fire and Rescue NSW” in Jan-11 and have pretty much the same capability and combat role as the ACT service. Nothing unique about the ACT service at all… Good on them for bringing the naming of the service into line with NSW though – it’s a far better description of what they do.

He goes onto say “All of our rescue component is integrated into everything that we do.

“All our front-line appliances all have a full complement of rescue gear so we don’t call on specialist units like they do in the cities of you know Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane, we do the lot.”

In NSW, the responsibility fo some rescues lies with other agencies – Police, VRA or SES etc. So the ACT is unique in the sense that F&R do it all.

Every front-line appliance appliance in Fire & Rescue NSW right across the state has rescue equipment as well, regardless of who is responsible for rescue. This same equipment is integrated into other jobs as required.

Maybe he is referring to the fact that the ACT Fire & Rescue don’t have the population, call rate or risk to warrant specialist units such as heavy or technical rescues and as such rely on these appliances to do the lot.

Unique alright.. Where else do you get paid to sleep during nightshift? )

For maximum impact they should have called it “ACT Fire and Rescue: Special Ops”, and developed an advertising campaign where ruggedly handsome fireys rappel down the face of Corin Dam to rescue a stranded child, or leap out of helicopters to tackle arsonists.

arb said :

“What we do in Canberra is unique,” he said.

Unique? NSWFB changed their name to “Fire and Rescue NSW” in Jan-11 and have pretty much the same capability and combat role as the ACT service. Nothing unique about the ACT service at all… Good on them for bringing the naming of the service into line with NSW though – it’s a far better description of what they do.

He goes onto say “All of our rescue component is integrated into everything that we do.

“All our front-line appliances all have a full complement of rescue gear so we don’t call on specialist units like they do in the cities of you know Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane, we do the lot.”

In NSW, the responsibility fo some rescues lies with other agencies – Police, VRA or SES etc. So the ACT is unique in the sense that F&R do it all.

“What we do in Canberra is unique,” he said.

Unique? NSWFB changed their name to “Fire and Rescue NSW” in Jan-11 and have pretty much the same capability and combat role as the ACT service. Nothing unique about the ACT service at all… Good on them for bringing the naming of the service into line with NSW though – it’s a far better description of what they do.

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