Australia - Queensland Fire Service - Efficency Review - June 2008

http://www.emergency.qld.gov.au/documents/QFRS%20Efficency%20Review%20Report.pdf

This is a very interesting 55 page report.

Queensland Fire & Rescue - 75% funded by urban fire taxes

7 comm centers

480 urban fire trucks and 800 rural fire trucks

238 urban fire stations (fulltime and auxiliary / paid on call)

1,526 rural fire brigades

2239 fulltime firefighters + 2033 parttime auxiliary firefighters

(paid on call) + 36,000 rural volunteer firefighters

Rural volunteer firefighters do mostly vegetation fires but they do

'some' structural firefighting also

648 fire stations total

1761 fire brigades - this must equal 238 urban stations plus 1526

rural fire brigades

(I wonder of some of the rural fire brigades have no trucks and no

stations - maybe they just have fire trailers)

451 fulltime staff are not firefighters

employee expenses + supplies + services = 90% of the budget

for 2006 / 2007 - urban crews responded to structure fires in under

14 minutes - 98% by FT stations - 89% by combination / composite

stations (FT FF + aux FF) - 86% by auxiliary stations - 50th

percentile response times for urban areas ranged from 5 to 7 minutes

which was equivalent to Victoria and NSW - see page 29

Approx 4.4 fire deaths per million population in Queensland - the

Australian average for all areas is 6.2 - Queensland was 8.8 back 7

years ago

"Response catchments" (first due areas) overlap for some Class A (24/7

fulltime stations) - also, some Class D (auxiliary) stations overlap

with Class A stations - "rationalizing" the fire stations might save

$500K per year (page 52) or $1.3M per year per page 54 - take your

pick

The Air Operations Unit was formed in 2005 to improve iZone (interface

zone) protection

Rescue pumpers last 15 years - Rescue tenders last 10 years - newer /

better Jaws are needed "extrication equipment needs to be replaced

more frequently" because cars are being built tougher

Climate change might increase severe fire weather days 15% or 70% by 2050

Brisbane cut water pressure due to drought - the FD worked to minimize

the impact on buildings (? sprinklered blds)

This study suggests that response to car crashes be cut 10% - they

also want to respond to fewer false automatic alarms