SES familiarisation thread

[sesroadcrashrescue]

im sory pip i since posting the msg have been infromed as to how you know how ever is it correct to post any information on the net about a job of that nature wither friends and family know what is going on or not??? i am under the understanding that even the small amount written can have massive implications latter as i have been to jobs were information even less then what you wrote has been leaked to the public and the reaction by services involved was not a plesent one to say the least

my opinion

[6739264]

Hmm, that StabFast looks interesting. Without taking things too far off topic, how is it better/different than either the FARA Side stabilizer, Holton Foot, or Imporvised Holton foot?

From the pics it looks like it would take a far while longer to set up and is more complex.

[Pipster]

im sory pip i since posting the msg have been infromed as to how you know how ever is it correct to post any information on the net about a job of that nature wither friends and family know what is going on or not??? i am under the understanding that even the small amount written can have massive implications latter as i have been to jobs were information even less then what you wrote has been leaked to the public and the reaction by services involved was not a plesent one to say the least

my opinion

I think you'll find that the bulk of the information I posted was actually released to the media....it'll probably make the local paper.

These days there seems to be a reluctance to talk about death, just in case we upset someone, somewhere....obviously, those who are dealing directly with the case (eg family, firends, emergency services personnel) don't need people making insensitive comments... however, the other side of the coin is that if no one speaks about death, when they have to deal with it, it becomes so much more difficult.

I deal regularly with death through my work - the odd murder, (too) many suicides, death through natural causes - and ranging in age from children through to the elderly, and ranging from a fresh body to a few weeks old.  Not talking about it in any form (in an appropriate forum) would not be good for my mental health.

I'm sorry if you found my previous posting upsetting - however, I do not believe that I have posted inappropriate information in this case.

Pip

[Alan (Big Al)]

Hmm, that StabFast looks interesting. Without taking things too far off topic, how is it better/different than either the FARA Side stabilizer, Holton Foot, or Imporvised Holton foot?

From the pics it looks like it would take a far while longer to set up and is more complex.

Here is 2 pics from a VA we had the took about 3 or so minutes to set them up, extremely quick, i think about $1000 each too

[6739264]

Are those straps magnetised to the door?

[Alan (Big Al)]

don't believe so, only seen them the once, but are much quicker to set up than the fara bar

[6739264]

MundCFS, lets go here: http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=1402.0

[sesroadcrashrescue]

there are some hooks pn the straps that can be slid into positon and with the use of a hole punch you can pounch holes in to attach the hooks

[Lizzy]

Keep it ontopic

Do any members of the SES find themselvs responding to clean up treas on houses of people who are not responsible enough to keep their houses in proper condition? ie being a free garden clean up service.

With the new CAD system these types of calls are slowing getting weeded out. The odd one still gets to us. Normally what my unit it does if we get there and its a gardening service job is give them a list of numbers of people to call that will do the job, and leave.

Sorry i have to put this straight. im in the same unit and we have never done that. if its a tree job on a house we always do it. the only time we hand out numbers is if we dont have the equiptment do complete the task.
yeh it is quiet annoying, and we have an unbelieveably long responce time but it does get done and it means that the fireys can b out protecting communitys from more important things.
in sayng that most of our ses unit r members of cfs aswell so its not like its the only thing we do but. 'hey, someone has to do it, right!'

[bajdas]

Keep it ontopic

Do any members of the SES find themselvs responding to clean up treas on houses of people who are not responsible enough to keep their houses in proper condition? ie being a free garden clean up service.

With the new CAD system these types of calls are slowing getting weeded out. The odd one still gets to us. Normally what my unit it does if we get there and its a gardening service job is give them a list of numbers of people to call that will do the job, and leave.

Sorry i have to put this straight. im in the same unit and we have never done that. if its a tree job on a house we always do it. the only time we hand out numbers is if we dont have the equiptment do complete the task.
yeh it is quiet annoying, and we have an unbelieveably long responce time but it does get done and it means that the fireys can b out protecting communitys from more important things.
in sayng that most of our ses unit r members of cfs aswell so its not like its the only thing we do but. 'hey, someone has to do it, right!'

At least it is good to see that the Adel Hills SES Unit is assisting another country unit at a showground demonstration in October. I understand the plan is for a pole derrick & some vertical harness demo.

It is also good to see you guys at the Adel Show & Clipsal500 events as well.

I am surprised at your comments because I have seen multi-taskings going to Adel Hills Unit during a storm night. Esp for flooding.

How long have you been with the Unit ?

[Lizzy]

i have been in the unit since the start of the yr.  i know not very long but i have only missed 4 jobs!
our unit are known for trees. im not saying we dont get flooding we have had a few flood jobs this yr with the storms - but the flood work involves cutting down the fallen tree and putting plastic over it. but we basically get trees. and thats fine like i said. someone has to do it, and we dont mind helping out those who cant.
im not complaining, im just stating. everyone in our unit realise we respond to trees. and thats why our unit has members who live further away from LHQ. we usually get trees which arent always a high priority, if it is we have to wait its as easy as that but if its life threatening MFS will page closest cfs who will usually stop call us, thats fine!
we are all volunteers we need to get along, even if they do cut up a tree for us, coz atleast they go to it b4 it hurt someone rite?!

[chook]

Just to get the thread back on track .All SES units are different, each unit has different Standards of Emergency Response that they are responsible for. Different specialities (for example our unit provides boat support to the CFS in summer, including fighting fires from the water -we have a flotation pump and standard pumps of various sizes) we have USAR Cat 1 qualified people, a Lot of extra storm damage stuff including battens & nail guns, vertical qualified people + access gear, extra stretchers, backboards, Hand operated hydraulics, various battery operated tools, quick cut saw for TBO & some gear + qualified people for confine space. We also have pollution booms & people who can use them. This is on top of our normal RCR responsibilities & gear. Plus we have some highly qualified people in land search, map reading, Navigation.
One of our neighbouring units has quad bikes, extra boats, Light towers, traffic lights and specialise in heavy RCR (i.e very difficult extrication's, multiple extrication's & heavy transport major incidents by backing up the first response) they have a high level of RCR equipment, would make any unit/brigade envious .
Another unit specialises in vertical ( has the gear, people, etc) and again back up the first responding unit in that task or any other task.
The last one specialises in Land search, ex specially in boats.
Several years ago we decided to specialise in different areas to reduce the amount of duplication.
As you can see there is more to SES than cutting up trees . Cheers chook

[24pumper]

Chook,
CFS have a system where training numbers are limited to what management believe is necessary to achieve the job (Standards of Fire & Emergency Cover). So set a minimun and maximum number of people to be trained in things like CABA. Just wondering if SES also have a limit on numbers of people for training and if so does it impact on the ability to perform emergency responces??

[chook]

The short answer is no. However there are certain courses that our unit for example can't attend i.e. air observer.
As there are a number of primary roles that all units must forfill then it is expected that all rescue members would be qualified if able - General Rescue is 1.
There is a number of secondary type roles that certain units perform - RCR is an example again it would be expected that all Unit rescue members would attempt this course. However non RCR units have not had much success sending people on this course - they are usually very low priority.
Finally there are some very specialised roles like Air observer that have limited numbers.
There are a number of non rescue roles within the service, those members who do not wish to be rescuers would forfill these roles.
Depending on the size of the Unit there could be one or more of thes positions e.g we only have two on the books & won't accept any more without very good reasons.
Really its up to the unit manager to decide how many of each skill the unit requires & who attends courses; currently there is a study going on to determine the numbers required accross all units. No one in our region as far as I know has reached a "ceiling"
Thanks for the question cheers

[24pumper]

Cheers,
For example in CFS if you have 4 CABA sets, then generally mangement determine that 2x (eg is enough CABA trained for a brigade, this is the minimum number however once you have 8 trained it is very difficult to train any more. I have also heard that RCR training is similar.. Not sure if MFS retained have similar restirctions on doing training courses??Can make things difficult as in a volunteer environment oyu never know who will turn up for a job, even if you train a member with great availabilty it doesnt mean they will always have good availability.. I gues it comes down to money in the end.. only a certain ammount of cash for training to go around.

[chook]

Nup we don't have that problem - metro may be different though as they are bigger units. As I said its up to the unit manager, if you meet the prereqs & there is a vacancy on the course your on .
We are currently looking for at least 4 more RCR operators, 3-4 vertical, usar cat 1's, Cat 2's etc.
The good news is with firies RPL & RCC come into play, so in my unit at least you can expect to be fast tracked if you work out ok that is - 3 months probation . But no we don't have any ceiling - yet
cheers

[6739264]

Can't you get most people trained in USAR Cat 1?

Pretty basic course and nothing like the Cat 2.

[chook]

Yep you are right of course, that was a subtle way of saying more members
Thought there might be some local FF's who would be interested in something different. My apologies for trying some quiet poaching
cheers

[Jimmy]

As training coordinator for my unit hopefully I can shed some more light on the situation. I've never heard of an upper limit on unit numbers of any particular skill. At the same time though, when a course is oversubscribed I think unit existing capability is taken into consideration.

There are some conditions to some roles that mean that not all units can nominate thier members for them, RCR is limited to units with RCR responsibilities (although I have heard some non-RCR units have been able to get members on courses with low numbers though this is meant to be stopped at region level), air observers need to be within 30 minutes of Mt Gambier, Port Lincoln or Adelaide airports. Air observer courses are reserved for members with a proven commitment to SES at my unit, partly due to the costs placed on the unit for the medical clearance etc. My training budget is blown each year with just First Aid courses let alone any other expenses.

At the same time state funding for courses is based on the percieved need for training in these areas. If a region is low on vertical access (for example) personel they are more likely to get a State funded Vertical Access course in thier region. So if it is percieved that there are enough trained people in an area there will not be state funding for that course, thereby effectivly capping the numbers.

[chook]

Yes Jimmy, you are correct, if oversubscribed then there is a priority placed on potential attendee's.
And yes courses are based on the areas risk (that is why shoring is not on our high prioriy list - yet).
I had a talk with someone from regional HQ, who is also a CFS vollie & he explained the CFS system. So the final answer to the question posed is NO SES does not operate like that.
cheers

[SA Firey]

Well lets see I did my Basic Rescue Course,was never issued with my certificate,attended training every Tuesday night,was given a pager and was responding to jobs,then pager was taken back because we dont have enough ,then we had paging buddies if your buddy wasnt able to respond he/she was supposed to ring you-never happened,then they were ringing me to respond to jobs,then that stopped,then wonder why I stopped coming to training...YOUR LOSS BOYS  

No letter or reply from an organisation who calls themselves professionals after repeated requests.

Thank god for the CFS.....of which I am now a Life Member

[chook]

Mate that is a filtered disgrace, and I guess there is nothing I could say to undo the damage caused. That would not happen in my unit and the organisation is improving. Please don't judge us all by what  happen to you.
cheers

[SA Firey]

Its true what they say cant be a member of both

[Benji]

Its true what they say cant be a member of both

There is nothing stopping you, we have a number of dual service members (Even had a tri service memeber)at our unit.

[SA Firey]

Its true what they say cant be a member of both

There is nothing stopping you, we have a number of dual service members (Even had a tri service memeber)at our unit.

You obviously missed it...I WAS a member of both but my above post already explains it...