Interesting Fire and Emergency Related Paging

[Pipster]

A proper look at, and a rearrangement of Groups is long overdue...I know there was a recent proposal for Region 1 to reduce the number of groups, and hence the rearrangement of group boundaries..... but that seems to have gone all quiet...not sure where it is at now!

Pip

[Bagyassfirey]

yea surely some of the groups in region 1/2 could be made bigger. but than again with out knowing details maybe im wrong!

[Alan (Big Al)]

Surely the group have to merge with someone else, can't have a group with 2 brigades in it.

I agree with u there darren, merge them with Mundoo or Southern Fl....?

[Darren]

I am surprised it still exists as it is, 3 brigades is such a small group to have these days.

Although they might need to change the way they operate 

[rescue5271]

There will be a number of group's that will merge into bigger groups over the next few years but how big should these groups be?? If we look at WATTLE RANGE group there are 22 stations with a group officer and 4 DGO'S is this group too big???

Lots of rural brigade's are having manning issues and with a declining membership i hate to say this but a number of rural brigades will close.....

[Pipster]

I suppose when it comes to merging groups, obviously a whole heap of factors need to be looked at.

Obviously, geographical proximity is one - that one is fairly obvious.  There are some brigades around who are on the outer edge of a group area.  The population of that township tends to associate with the adjoining group - eg the kids go to school in the adjoining group area, townsfolk do their shopping in the adjoining group area, collect their mail from a post office in the adjoining group's area - so it makes sense to add this group to the adjoining one!!

However geographical area should not be the only criteria.

We could go down the track of all groups to have roughly equal numbers of brigades in them...but, you could end up with the same sized groups, but one does mega numbers of calls per year, the adjoining group hardly any, so one group has group officer holders getting flogged with work, the adjoining ones not doing a lot!!

So, do you then look at rearranging group boundaries based on workload - so that each group ends up with about the same workload...so some groups would have a handful of brigades, others very large, but roughly the same workload...?

These suggestions make it very simplistic, and obviously, changing / rearranging groups is not that simple.....especially when tribalism & politics gets involved!!

However, I do believe it is time we seriously looked at the issue, and made some changes to groups and group boundaries.... after all, the bulk of our group boundaries are still based on which council area you were in!!

Pip

[rescue5271]

I know from my own region that there is a move to merge a number of the smaller groups into one group but also look at the other groups within the region where brigades are closer to the other group than their own group but also look at volunteer numbers.

Large groups have their good and bad points its just a matter of someone or some groups taking the first step to get the ball rolling,There will also have to be long consultation with groups/brigades and also to work out the fine points. One issue will be group bases,WATTLE RANGE have two bases one at Millicent and the other at Penola both take it in turns a week on and a week off in doing comms .So lots will have to be worked out well before hand I did hear that it would take up to 2 years work before any group could or would merge so that the consultation process is done by the book....

[Darren]

If you consolidated enough groups you could almost give them a paid staff member to oversea them, much the same way the CFA work, they don't have dedicated GO's. All the one's I have seen have dual roles, so you might be such and such captain, but on big strike team type jobs you take a GO's role. I have been to several stations that have GO helmets on anything from FF's through to Captains hooks.

They said it works well, the paid staff member does the overall paperwork for the group, and because they are full time they have the time to do, equipment, trainig, report etc etc All the brigade officers do is firefighting and fire reports.

Worth a thought. Not to many people putting their hands up for group roles these days.

[misterteddy]

"allegedly" the AAIMS span of control concept was born of research that proved the limits of a single entity (note NOT a single person!!)

"allegedly" someone will apply this one day to something other than fire appliances, sectors, divisions and campaigns......something like, oh I dont know....Groups and Regions?

or we could just work with the people we like....works for some Groups

[jaff]

"allegedly" the AAIMS span of control concept was born of research that proved the limits of a single entity (note NOT a single person!!)

"allegedly" someone will apply this one day to something other than fire appliances, sectors, divisions and campaigns......something like, oh I dont know....Groups and Regions?

or we could just work with the people we like....works for some Groups

Probably why theres deputies and a whole raft of group positions and commiteees

[rescue5271]

Darren, the CFA joint role works well one can be a officer in the brigade and hold group rank as for staff doing the paperwork they are called BASO and dont hold any rank their job is to do the day to day task of paperwork and help with inspections..Works well but lets face it CFA have lots more money than CFS...

[Hazmat206]

17:29:34 15-08-10 MFS: *CFSRES INC100 15/08/10 17:29,RESPOND Vehicle Accident,PULTENEY ST,ADELAIDE MAP B J 4 TG182,,ADL203 ADL206 - MFS Adelaide 206

Mistake maybe

[Alex]

206 came across it, therefore first arriving officer, put on the job.

Mistake maybe

C'mon.... bit of faith please.

[6739264]

17:29:34 15-08-10 MFS: *CFSRES INC100 15/08/10 17:29,RESPOND Vehicle Accident,PULTENEY ST,ADELAIDE MAP B J 4 TG182,,ADL203 ADL206 - MFS Adelaide 206

Mistake maybe

Despite the fact that we have a good explanation as to what occured, have you never seen a Hazmat appliance tunred out to an MVA? Not everything has to be a mistake made at comms...

EDIT: Terrible spelling... Hammad Appliance? What? I don't think I was drunk...

[Hazmat206]

17:29:34 15-08-10 MFS: *CFSRES INC100 15/08/10 17:29,RESPOND Vehicle Accident,PULTENEY ST,ADELAIDE MAP B J 4 TG182,,ADL203 ADL206 - MFS Adelaide 206

Mistake maybe

Despite the fact that we have a good explanation as to what occured, have you never seen a Hammad appliance tunred out to an MVA? Not everything has to be a mistake made at com ms...

Nope,first time i've come across it.
Also, i thought they were at a second alarm domestic, but alex explained why they turned up.

[Alan (Big Al)]

1908863 14:24:28 30-08-10 MFS:EMERGENCY CALL RECEIVED FROM AO-AMR-FT4-M GO DGO & CAPTAIN CONTACT ADELAIDE FIRE NOW*CFSRES

Any takers on how many people got all the way to their stations in the regions without reading their pagers lol??

[Pipster]

And how many called up Adelaide fire on the radio.......!

[Darren]

One would think that if the callsign meant nothing to you, you would stay out of it. Some people 

[misterteddy]

most of us arent radio special geeks, could have been an emerg button on a radio in an appliance for all many of us would have known......

would have thought the operators could have made the message clearer....they got what they deserved

[Zippy]

...quite an amount of station's doors opened all at once lol  so a fair bit of volunteer fuel used anyhow..

[Alex]

shouldnt have opened station doors unless brigades have just used any old pager rather than a purpose one... message went to regional info, not individual brigade response adresses.

[rescue5271]

That pager message should have only gone to Group officers and staff and not every CFS pager...

[mengcfs]

That pager message should have only gone to Group officers and staff and not every CFS pager...

Hence the subsequent message of "Thanks for all the phone calls, incorrect pager group selected, no further calls in required thanks".

I'm with Darren. If you don't know what the call signs mean, then the page probably wasn't meant for you.  Sometimes it's just best to do nothing.

[Bagyassfirey]

Anyone know where the radio was that presed the button....Moral of the story if ya accidentally pres button dont turn radio off wait n tell Ad Fire it a false alarm!

[tft]

MFS: *CFSRES INC054 31/08/10 17:45,RESPOND Vehicle Accident,BELAIR RD,LYNTON MAP 142 K 12 TG146,2 CARS ONE ROLL OVER OUTSIDE WINDY POINT, RESTAURANT,BKWD19 BELR00 STM401

MFS area?