CFA Connect Blogosphere

Knox Group Specialist Appliance Display:
A strong commendation to the Knox Group for the highly successful display of specialist appliances held on 22nd April. High praise goes to DGO's Ian Atherton, Peter Shaw and Lt2 Craig Williamson from Montrose. The display included specialist appliances and equipment from Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, Parks Victoria, Victoria Police, SES, St John Ambulance, DSE, Ambulance Victoria and MFB. Of course there were over 35 CFA vehicles participating. Acting DCO Gregg Patterson described the display as "awesome". Look forward to something bigger and better in 2014! Great leadership and initiative team - well done! For images of Knox Group's display, click here.

Psychological Safety:
Our psychological safety is just as important as our physical safety. Working as a first responder in emergency services means we are exposed to circumstances and events that others would rarely see. Just like physical safety, there are steps we can take to eliminate or minimise our exposure to psychological risk. Our People and Culture team recently discussed with me some tips on how to include psychological safety into our daily practices:
• Minimise your exposure to traumatic images and sounds wherever possible. If you coordinate training for others in CFA, this should be a key message.
• Remove yourself and your team members wherever possible - if a turn out involves an MVA and fatality, keep non-essential personnel at a distance from the scene. Make sure crew members are not exposed for too long.
• Prepare yourself wherever possible - identify things that may be distressing to you and plan how you might deal with them.
• Look after each other and activate support services (such as peers) when you need to.
• Most importantly, be prepared to talk about your feelings and ask for help if you don't feel right.

At the October Board meeting, the Chief Officer reported on the conditions that indicate an above-average grassfire risk this fire season. One hot, windy day in October produced almost 60 grass and scrub fires alone.

Community messaging, operational briefings and strategic planning are being influenced by this forecast. An example is the deployment of a secure medium tactical helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft to the Mallee for the first time, to help mitigate the fire risk during harvesting.

This week is National Volunteer Week. It is time to recognise the strength and benefit that we, as a society, receive from volunteering.  Volunteers come in many forms.  In our schools, hospitals, aged and special care facilities; in sports, working with the disadvantaged and those with special needs; and working to provide hope and a lifeline for those who are down on luck and circumstance.  Emergency service volunteers in Australia hold a special place in our culture.  The volunteering ethos is strong not only in CFA, but in our communities and our governments.  Put simply, we could not enjoy the same standard of health, happiness and safety as we do if it were not for the efforts of our volunteers.  Globally, the strong culture of fire and emergency service volunteering in Australia is regarded with respect and some jealously by governments and emergency managers in other countries.  Our volunteering ethos is extremely valuable.  It is something to be grown, developed and encouraged in future generations.  On behalf of CFA, to all our front line people, we say: “Thank you! You do essential work. You create value by protecting lives and property. Your efforts are very much appreciated. Be proud of what you do. Keep up the great work!”

Women Leaders in CFA: My previous article on women in CFA sparked a lot of reaction.  Amongst other comments, many wrote to correct my comments about women in leadership positions in CFA.  SO Jessica Walsh from Sunbury observes that of the 15 female career firefighters in CFA, there are four leading fire-fighters, one station officer, and two senior station officers (one with operations officer qualifications).  Thus, nearly half are in operational leadership roles.  SSO Michelle Snow has acted as an Operations Officer.  We have Josephine Sensi an SSO, SO Jessica Walsh and four Leading Fire Fighters in Reenie Cook, Kelli Russell, Natalie Brindle and Paula Treacy.  A number of female firefighters are currently working towards their Leading Fire Fighter assessments.