Michaela Meade
Werribee’s volunteer firefighters have performed above the state average for emergency response times.
The Victorian standard for responding to class two emergency incidents – significant urban areas and primarily residential – is eight minutes. Eight-three per cent of incidents are reached within that time according to latest CFA data.
Werribee’s CFA District 14 brigade met the standard for 86 per cent of call-outs from July 1 to September 30, 2020.
The state goal is for 90 per cent of incidents to be reached within the eight minute time frame.
District 14 assistant chief fire officer Christian Thorley said the response times were a result of the hard work of the volunteer brigade.
“Urban growth resulting in increased traffic and major government infrastructure projects within the Wyndham City Council municipality, are providing a challenging environment in respect to response times,” Mr Thorley said.
“CFA have implemented additional support brigade response to enhance service delivery to the community.
“We continue to work with all our brigades to enhance our response times by supporting them as needed.”
The Werribee CFA also had strong results for class three call-outs – all urban areas not covered in class two and predominantly residential occupancies and small industries.
The standard response time for class thee incidents is 10 minutes – Werribee hit the target for 79 per cent of incidents.
Mr Thorley highlighted the importance of the brigade’s work in fire prevention.
“A lot of the vital work our volunteers perform to keep communities safe occurs before an accident – in the fire prevention, education and community engagement areas.”
