Most of Victoria’s urban fire trucks will have exceeded their replacement age by 2025 and are already prone to mechanical problems that can hamper response capacity, firefighters say.
Firefighters argue their equipment is leaving them exposed to increasing dangers and affecting their ability to turn out quickly to incidents.
In one recent instance of equipment failure, a Fire Rescue Victoria truck reportedly broke down in Halls Gap while the Grampians fire blazed.
The United Firefighters Union has long warned that FRV’s fleet is experiencing regular and worsening breakdowns due to the age of the equipment.
Figures supplied to The Age by the union showed 42 per cent of Fire Rescue Victoria’s fleet of about 200 trucks had already passed the 15-year maximum replacement age and a further 22 per cent would pass that mark in 2025.
Fire Rescue Victoria covers metropolitan Melbourne and urbanised parts Victoria, including Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and other regional centres.
Melton-based leading firefighter Tom Upton said his station had a 14-year-old pumper fire truck that was a year off replacement age and a 15-year-old rescue truck – used to respond to car accidents – that was supposed to be replaced after 10 years.
He said the station’s road rescue truck had been operating without a winch because it had broken down.
Upton said equipment failure hurt the morale of firefighters who needed functional equipment to ensure their own safety.
“It’s pretty disheartening, and it creates a level of anxiety that we shouldn’t have,” he said. “We’re now having to make do with broken trucks.”
Upton said Melton crews were increasingly having to wait for specialist equipment from other stations – including trucks fitted with extendable ladders known as telebooms – because local trucks were often breaking down.
He said delayed response times were particularly problematic in densely populated growth areas, where houses can be made from more flammable material than older homes.
“They burn quicker, and they burn harder and hotter,” he said.
The firefighters’ union’s western district health and safety representative, Kat Dunell, said it took about two years from the time of ordering a truck for it to be delivered.
Dunell said she knew of instances in which pumps on fire trucks had failed to work while firefighters had to enter buildings to perform rescues.
“You shouldn’t even be thinking about mechanical failure,” she said.
Dunell said areas with exponential population growth, including Melton and Geelong, were not getting the coverage they needed, and resources were struggling to keep up with population increases.
“The public is paying the fire service levy and should be getting the coverage they’re paying for,” she said.
In 2017, the Victorian government promised to deliver new fire stations in the rapidly growing suburb of Clyde North in Melbourne’s outer south-east and at Armstrong Creek in Geelong’s outskirts. However, construction is yet to start on either project.
The firefighters’ concerns about their truck fleet comes amid heightened tensions between the union and state government, who have been locked in a dispute about a new pay deal.
In November, the state’s independent fire services watchdog criticised the influence of the UFU, finding the industrial stoush was chiefly responsible for stalling reforms to modernise Victoria’s firefighting services.
In his report, Fire Service Implementation Monitor Niall Blair found the union’s control was affecting ground efforts, including the trucks not being dispatched to nearby emergencies.
“The damaging impacts of the United Firefighters Union … continue to dominate decision-making and day-to-day operations of FRV and its ability to work with other fire agencies,” Blair said in his report.
“This influence is hindering the completion of key actions underpinning the implementation plan, impacting operations and damaging the culture of the agencies and morale on the ground.”
An FRV spokeswoman said the emergency service was making strong progress in updating its firefighting fleet.
She said that in December 2024, FRV had added seven appliances to its fleet on top of its first electric fire truck, which was delivered in the middle of that year.
The spokeswoman said a further 20 appliances were being designed or built.
She said planning for the Clyde North fire station was complete, and that FRV had acquired land and secured council approval for the project.
The spokeswoman said work was also continuing on the proposed Armstrong Creek fire station, which required subdivision of the land and the connection of services before the property could be sold to Fire Rescue Victoria.
Opposition emergency service spokesperson Danny O’Brien accused the government of neglecting to invest in life-saving equipment. “If there’s a problem with FRV trucks it is exacerbated with the CFA, where many tankers and trucks are now over 30 years old, while dozens of stations are outdated and in need of rebuilding,” he said.
A Victorian government spokeswoman said it had delivered more than $100 million to ensure firefighters had the trucks, resources and equipment they needed to protect Victorians and keep themselves safe.
She said this year’s budget included $15.4 million for five new pumper platforms for Fire Rescue Victoria in addition to 23 trucks and support vehicles already on their way.
“Our dedicated fire services continue to deliver the best service to the community, so that Victorians, no matter where they live, are safe,” she said.
The NSW union has also criticised its ageing truck fleet, finding that 40 per cent of Fire and Rescue NSW’s trucks had exceeded their replacement age. The Minns government pledged a $2.2 billion package to improve the service after what it claimed was a decade of neglect.