Lagging fire response in outer Melbourne poses 'risk to community safety'
Residents in growth areas of Melbourne are experiencing worsening responses to fire emergencies, an ABC analysis of Fire Rescue Victoria data has found.
An increasing number of residents in Melbourne's growth areas are facing delays in fire emergency response times, according to data from Fire Rescue Victoria. While the minister maintains that the service is the best in Australia, she has requested additional funding for fire services. Freda Kililit, a mother and nurse, experienced a traumatic incident two years ago when her home burnt down.
She noticed smoke from a neighbour's backyard, alerted them, and called for help. However, professional firefighters took more than five minutes to arrive, arriving too late to save her home. Clyde North, where the incident occurred, was supposed to have a new Fire Rescue Victoria station built by 2023, but construction has not yet begun.
The nearest station is over five kilometres away. Despite being targeted for a 7.7-minute response time, firefighters have raised concerns about the lack of resources to keep up with Melbourne's population growth. The ABC analyzed data for ten fire stations in outer suburban regions and found that response times were worse than targets and worsening over time.
These areas performed significantly worse than the state average, which was also below targets. Firefighters argue that slowing response times increase property loss and decrease survivability of those trapped by fire.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
