Their Teleboom truck – vital for rapid access at heights to rescue people and fight fires from above – is more than a decade past its service life. It barely lasts three weeks in service before breaking down again, showing exactly why the 15-year service life limit must be followed for safety and reliability.
Now, they’ve been handed a replacement truck with no height rescue or aerial firefighting capability. It’s so rare – and soon-to-be-scrapped – that firefighters were told “no point training people”, forcing urgent extra training because no one on shift was qualified to use it.
This is not the fire service Victorians are paying more for.
This is the fire service FRV Commissioner Gavin Freeman is allowing to exist – and why firefighters have no confidence in his leadership or the state of their fleet. This crisis has now reached Breaking Point.
