 Good evening everyone and welcome to January's Volunteer Forum here. I'm here at the DMO workshops in Cario. We're broadcasting to you live and it's a pleasure to have everyone here online with us tonight. As usual tell me where you're from. Always very interested to hear and know where our people are logging on from watching tonight's forum and we already have a couple of people joining us whether it be Craig from Hottles Creek, Brendan from Greendale or Kylie from South Melbourne. So I think we've got some really great attendance tonight and a jam-packed agenda here at Cario. I want to start tonight's forum by acknowledging the traditional owners to which we're all meeting on tonight and pay my respects to Aboriginal persons past, present and emerging and recognize the strength and resilience of the Aboriginal people in this land. There is a big storm coming through Geelong very shortly so I do apologise if if the rain on the rooftops plays with the sound here but we are hoping that it will bypass us but just in case it doesn't just letting you all know that there is a bit of a storm activity going on. Happy new year this is the first Volunteer Forum for 2022 and it's a pleasure to be able to recommence these this year in an effort to bring you the information that our volunteers want and provide the key updates to the programs and initiatives of the CFA undertaking. On the panel here with me this evening we have Anthony Ramsey as always Anthony welcome get ready for those hard questions you know they're going to come I'm sure Eric's sitting at home just thinking of a few right now just for you. I also have Tim Smith here with me and Karen welcome to the panel this evening we have two other people here sitting in the wings as always ready to jump onto the panel and provide their expertise and that's Steven and John and we'll be hearing from them a little later on there they are sitting there in the wings we'll be hearing from them a little later on about some of the really great initiatives that goes on as always questions are invited we do want to hear from our members ask the hard questions Anthony's here tonight so I am giving you the the challenge to ask him the stumper but certainly we're going to answer any question we can we have Brad here tonight Brad's monitoring the internal comms email address so if you do have a question please feel free to email that internal comms at CFA and Brad will be able to read them online online or likewise I can pick up some of your questions are here in the chat so thank you thank you very much for joining us one of the things that I think for me as I did my chief's tour last year and as I do talk two brigades the DMO workshop is where it all happens they tell me it's where all the things get fixed that they do get broken and more importantly it's where all the latest gossip gets to be known and we'll ask the boys later on what sort of gossip they do have on on offer because they tell me if it's worth knowing a DMO generally does know it so that's fantastic it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that yesterday Australia Day I saw the release of the Australia Day honours and awards and particularly a number of CFA members were acknowledged with Her Majesty's Australian Fire Service Medal and in particular I'd like to give a shout out to John Clark Graham Higgs and Gillian Metz who were recipients of the AFSM medal John more than 50 users of volunteer firefighter under his belt has done multiple things and a fantastic contribution to see more in his local community after becoming a member at just the age of 16 well recognized in the local community and it's dedicated a life of service to the CFA Graham Graham is another long-serving volunteer almost 50 years experience with the CFA and has had a significant leadership role including during the 2009 Black Saturday fires distinguished service the Durham West Fire Brigade includes 20 years as captain and helping the transition from that rural type brigade through to one that responds to a range of hazards including urban fires and incidents and finally Gillian Gillian joined the CFA in 2000 after moving to Australia from the UK and really did get into the local community spirit and joined the CFA to understand what it's all about and after participating in deployments and major incidents and leading strike teams she had led programs and projects to adjust the areas of strategic improvement as well as championed increased diversity and diversity of within the CFA and contributing to ensuring that local brigades become stronger brigades that better represent the communities that which we serve and as many of us know that's the future of the CFA to make sure that as a community based organization we're made up of the local community that we serve and ultimately leads to the to the benefits of the community and the brigade so Tim we're here in Cario demo workshops number of these around the state there is there is this 13 district mechanical office or workshops right across Victoria servicing all of our volunteer fire brigades so we've got 75 DMS across the state and they're supported by a couple of managers that that manage each half of the state to support them and we've got some admin staff as well on a sort of a part time arrangement that support the workshops and we've got 13 or so casual drivers that drive the trucks around from station to station so that the volunteers don't have to do that work and that works really well but there were 13 workshops we'll go after 2282 or 83 trucks for CFA it's quite a it's quite a big fleet that sort of bring in and service and maintain so what's what are some of the trucks that we see coming through a through a workshop so we'll service all fire trucks that have a what they what we call a purpose built body or purpose built fire capability so most of the vehicles that are not full command vehicles or smaller vehicles get maintained through our workshops and you know one of the one of the vehicles that we're getting a lot of attention about at the moment is the new ultra heavy tanker so that's that's one that we know now that we've got a program to build some more and and that's becoming a very popular truck for us out there so apologies everyone we're just as I said storm and we are running off off the wireless network so if you do that in the dropout please hit that retry button refresh and join on we do apologize but as I said at the beginning there is quite a large storm sell over us that he's playing a bit of havoc with our connection here tonight unfortunately so Tim ultra heavy tankers obviously you know one of the new approaching things and we have Karen here with us tonight who is the resident expert I believe in ultra heavy tankers can you tell us more about it so currently we have two ultra heavy tankers which we built basically as a prototype to to get them out in the fleet to see how they how they worked and and so forth and they've been doing some really good things up in districts 17 and 18 so that's where they're based at the moment and we are looking forward to building another 29 of them awesome so what's what distinguishes I guess the ultra heavy tanker to a heavy tanker okay so heavy tanker has 4,000 liters of water our current heavy tankers the new ultra heavy tankers are going to have 10,000 liters of water so they are they're on a six by four cab chassis so they're a larger vehicle they're a longer vehicle higher and a large amount of water which allows them to go for longer before having to go back and refill which is a big advantage in a lot of areas where there isn't a lot of water and certainly in my travels particularly in the you know the Wimmer and some of those western parts of the state water is quite important to to the crews on the ground there and having a vehicle like this really will boost that water carrying capacity but also the ability of the crews to operate on the ground so it's certainly great a great improvement to the fleet so how many of these are we looking at building so we're going to build 29 in this next build so that's and they will be distributed right across the state but they will be I believe yeah all all over the state and in all the different regions excellent now that's that's fantastic and it's great to great to hear and certainly I think we look forward to them getting out and about and and been able to facilitate that you know the service that they do to our brigade so Tim ultra heavy tank you reckon you'll be able to fit one into the workshop here absolutely we're well we're well we have the capability here at this workshop and all of our workshops to service the 6x4 ultra heavy tanker it won't be a challenge for us and we're looking forward to keeping them on the road for our volunteers yeah I'm sure I'm sure you're all Anthony here in here in Corio the workshop here and we've just heard from Tim about some of the great work that the workshops do do but it's not just to see a phase we we effectively still service all of the all of the vehicles that were transferred to fire rescue Victoria as part of reform in this workshop in particular we do see but we do get to see a lot of fire rescue Victoria vehicles come through and it's and it's great to be able to continue that to continue that service and and and help out the other agency by by looking after these these vehicles I mean we built them we maintain them for many many years and and as a result it's it's logical for us to continue to look after them at the moment while a decision on them you know for the longer term is made that's fantastic I think it goes to the strength of the DMO is the DMO network in the workshops that we are able to to provide that service to fire rescue Victoria and be able to continue the service that that fleet so so tell me Tim do they break more trucks than our volunteers or what's the story that it's a bit hard to say always the diplomat so I think given the numbers I'm sure there's probably more CFA trucks going through these doors and fire rescue trucks but I think it's fantastic that you're able to to provide that to to fire rescue and ensure that we continue to assist them in operating as they do too Anthony there is another vehicle we've got to talk about tonight we've spoken about the ultra heavy tanker but there's this thing known as the BA support vehicle yeah so we're um so as part of our as part of our ongoing work to to look at the the broader BA strategy for CFA moving forward we're looking at at some light support vehicles so we're able to to build a couple of prototypes and those those vehicles are there to to carry cylinders and and some other gear and to to help us be able to move from the cylinder cases around the state as we need to as we move to remove more of this more to more to a different way of working with breathing apparatus and particularly with swap-and-go type functionality for cylinders and a number of other initiatives that that accurate boatman's looking at at the moment awesome and I understand I think Keith tonight we've got a bit of a video on the BA support vehicle so roll the tape G'day my name is Stephen Hale from CFA's fleet and equipment department we're here to show you around CFA's newest concept vehicle BA support this vehicle has been developed to support infield BA operations, training activities and through the provision of BA cylinders, mask cleaning and basic rehab for firefighters built on a 3.2 liter Ford Ranger XL extra cab with an automatic transmission bull bar snorkel tow bar all allowing to be driven on a car license being an extra cab the seating is limited to two crew inside the cabin we have the CFA tape radiator and a slick controller to operate all emergency lighting, scene lighting and locker lighting inside this locker we have facilities to wash BA masks, trestle tables, two comfort chairs, two BA staging mats, asbestos field kits and a BA pressure gauge the vehicle is fitted with an under tray 70 liter water tank and 12-volt pump these two valves are connected to the under tray water tank and is switched on and off using this pump switch here inside the rear locker is 24 BA cylinders and the cylinders are kept in place by the locking tabs this locker contains the dual battery and all associated potentiary inside this locker we have magnetic whiteboards, fire extinguisher, space available for contaminated PPC for transportation, CFA portable and charger across the bull bar we have the LED driving light the green LED directly above the number plate this will illuminate when driving under code 1 conditions this is a typical layout of the two trestle tables laid out to suit the incident three tubs first for pre-wash the second for rinsing and the third for drying of masks BA staging mats color-coded red and green to show full and empty cylinders two comfort chairs for crews for rest and recovery well what a fantastic piece of equipment and again congratulations to all those people within infrastructure services that have worked on on that vehicle and putting it together whether it be the design the manufacturer of the or the commissioning and certainly a piece of equipment that will serve our volunteers well as they go doing what they do best in service to their to their communities just a point I have noticed in the chat a lot of discussion about audio dropouts video dropouts again we do apologize we do know there's a storm cell playing some havoc without with our connection equipment tonight but never fear the the live stream is being recorded and will be available on members online after the after the workshop as well as I think keeps going to be able to do with some of his magic be able to stitch it all together and again have it available to people afterwards so if you have missed something if you did drop out never fear you can go back and watch the entire thing without without the drop out so just to fill you in on on that one thank you so we have a new panelist here with us John welcome to the panel tonight are you ready for for the hard ones give it a go excellent so you're the OIC in charge of the the workshop here what does that mean what does that encompass I just delegate the workload to the DMOs and liais between myself and the volunteers out there work excellent so are you one of these people that knows what's going on or the gossip sometimes so tell me the room is true if you want to know anything in this organization just ask a DMO it's generally the generally the way we get around a fair bit and normally the volunteers are up for a bit of a chat so awesome now that's fantastic it's great great to hear so tell me I guess more about I get near the role your role the workshop and what it's what it's like to be in a day in the life of a district mechanical officer our workshops fairly fairly busy we look after probably six around 60 brigades we generally I got 170 vehicles that we look after which keep it's pretty busy all the time now work trying to get the workflow through is a bit of a challenge sometimes especially at the moment with COVID and alike parts are getting a bit hard to get come by but yeah generally it's a fast-paced a workshop to work in at Jalong for sure excellent so I guess what a tell me what is what are some of the most common things that come through the door here normally it's a electrical problem so he says years gone by it used to be a lot of drive line issues but drive lines are a lot more robust these days and now we're looking at more your electrical faults stuff along those lines so yeah excellent and they tell me the demos are fairly fairly forgiving and there's a bit of a no blame policy that goes on when the truck comes in a little bit bent it's yeah it's definitely yeah it's come to be expected you see where some of these trucks go it's inevitable that you're going to run about the rub up against something do you ever sort of look at some of them and go how did they do that yeah quite a bit so what about so you run a 24-hour a day seven day week 365 day operation as a DMO so what's it like sort of organising that and how do you I guess you operate in the in the middle of the dark or during major activities and I understand yeah we even sent DMOs to South Australia recently on a on interstate deployments so tell me a little bit about that well one thing we are pretty good at doing as a section is improvising making good with very little used to working in isolated situations and making the best of a bad situation sometimes and just in order to get the vehicles on the move again so an invaluable job and I know as I said before that other than knowing you know if you want to know something gas is DMO but I do generally think that you know DMOs are probably a bit of unsung heroes in the organization behind the scenes very very rarely sort of you heard from and seen but you are so critical to ensuring that our fleet is always ready to respond and is able to to be there when our when our volunteers needed needed most I had a bit of a tour of the workshop when I first got here this evening it's a fantastic workshop some of this a little key safety features here because I obviously you know working around heavy machinery lifting slips trips falls those sort of stuff a lot of oil around or potentially around this workshop is immaculate so I'm sure someone will be upset with me saying a lot of oil around but certainly talk me through I guess some of the safety features and some of the safety initiatives here in the workshop it's all born from learnings from the previous workshops that have been built this is the last one that has been built it's a 10 bay workshop your last four bays or eight meters high to incorporate a five tonne crane and fall assist equipment for working on on heights working at heights it was a lot different than the old workshop which would have seen earlier on just a glimpse of you fit it fit a fair bit more in we're able to run eight DMOs out of the workshop one driver and one admin assistant along with a premise I see we got two truck hoists there which help us from immensely with doing all the gearbox work and diffs that a lot that sort of stuff got yeah plenty of room to move and as you see we've got a fair bit of work ahead of us in the next week or so anyway and you see you got Dale there doing a valve delivery valve we've got the exhaust on the top left there exhaust extraction unit for getting exhaust fumes out of the workshop and five five tonne hoist there for working on the four wheel drives and stuff that's made it a lot easier to work on those we've got our fabrication area there for we got TIG MIG plasma cutter our oil store which is all bunted or EPA compliant even the shelving in that stores bunted and it's got a well there to catch any anything that gets past the bunting pretty much and you've got the five tonne hoist which has got a four protection four from heights equipment on it James is just demonstrating now the the equipment that we use the harness and the like just to so when we're working on top of an appliance if he does happen to accidentally fall off he's allegedly not going to hit the ground so it's all about safety yeah when when you are dealing with heavy industry such as you know mechanics dealing with with trucks and machinery it's important that we do look after the health and safety of our people whether that be a poor protection as you spoke about yeah safe lifting practices clean clean environment and the like so tell me so we've seen obviously on the video your standard trucks yet yeah heavy pumpers your medium pumpers and the light and the light what about a ladder platform Bronto can you take care of one of them we've been recently completed on a nozzle 10 yearly on one of those fully pulled it all down using the crane refurbished it and put it all back together the city's 42 meter with we have that in all the time and three monthlies all the rest of it we can set one of them up inside in the high base which is a luxury because we used to have to set them up outside no matter what the weather and play with them out there so that's a good asset having their room to be able to set one of them up inside and I bet and I guess that leads me to the I guess my little cheeky question to you was so do you ever get out and have a bit of a play with the you know with the machinery and all that stuff I guess it's you know boys and their toys comes to comes to mind I think that's great the workshop itself and as I said the work that you do and certainly from what I can see here the chat is absolutely full of volunteers right now saying DMOs are our heroes yeah they keep us going do some fantastic work in fact a couple of shout-outs to to those that did go to South Australia so a lot of work being done and a lot of fantastic effort being put in by our district mechanical officers and support staff it is a team effort and certainly one that I know our volunteers are extremely appreciative of the hard work and dedication of of you all so thanks some thanks for telling us all about it John and giving us a little bit of an insight into what it's like to be in charge of a workshop and making sure that we look after the the CFA fleet so thank you Anthony the people have not let me down tonight and they've got there's a couple of hard well a couple of interesting questions here in the in the chat so Scott starts the announcement of heavy tankers indicated they were going to replace single cab trucks over half have gone to replace the current dual cabs why well that's right so so yes the the 48 heavy tankers and two lights will will replace through a series of cascades in some instances that single cab single cab trucks so at the end of that program through a series of cascades in a lot of cases will do a bit of a midlife refresh of some vehicles and send them and send them to other brigades to end their to end their their service at but at the end of the day 50 single cab heavy tankers will roll will roll out of out of CFA and be decommissioned thank you Kevin asks there's the VA support vehicle have the facility to refill cylinders as well no it doesn't so so the so the the capability we're focusing on is moving cylinders around the state and being able to get to the being able to get to the point where cylinders can be filled cylinders can be can be looked after at the most appropriate at the most appropriate existing facility in many cases I stopped to say that there won't be other that there won't be other compressors rolled out around the state but at the moment what we're looking at the VA supports to do is to be able to move those existing similar to cases around the state and take them to where that you know to where they need it at a time once we've got the swap and go up and running completely will basically take you know 30 odd cylinders to a job if they're used great they get loaded back up and they get taken back and looked after excellent and probably the last one before we go to our next next panelist and subject and I know you and I spoke about it after the last volunteer forum or the volunteer forum it scores me and that's that little green light near the number plate questions being asked about will there be a view to retrofitting those vehicles that don't have the little green light and I guess for some out there I guess for some of them out there I guess explain what is the little green light and how does it work yeah maybe that's the maybe I can answer that and pretend that I answered the whole question I'm not sure the little green light is used it first out of the ambulance service because the way that our LEDs light the way that our LED lights work is with the with the flickering that they do they're not always captured by cameras such as speed cameras or red light cameras so it looks for all intents and purposes that that our vehicles are traveling either at speed or through or through intersections or against red lights without that you know without their light showing because the cameras don't always pick them up so the ambulance service introduced this steady green light sitting above both the front and rear number plate we've started we've introduced that into our into our new into our new fitouts but we haven't we haven't really explored a we haven't really explored a retrofitting of that we can we can certainly have a look at that but but at this point in time there is no one there's no plan in place for that and one final one just to round it off Darren asks previously asked before is any plans to plans to fit retards on the medium tankers I might actually throw to Tim for that Tim retards on medium tankers medium tanker not that I'm aware of no so we've got there we've got manual medium tankers and also automatic medium tanker so I assume he's talking about the automatic but I'm not sure that I'm not aware of any program to look at retrofitting retardous thanks and and Darren I guess without a little bit more context I guess we can't explore that question a little bit more for you but but certainly you sort of got a bit of a bit of a question there now so we have another panelist here with us this evening welcome Steve to the panel and you're here to tell us about a bit of a new initiative that's just been rolled out to assist the the DMOs and to make I guess everyone's life a little bit easier and streamline and bring the CFA into the 21st century tell me a little bit more about it thanks so we've developed a system down at the bandstyle workshop that is a QR code it's on the inside of the windscreen and basically it's just there for customer service to allow our volunteers that are already time poor to to report faults that are of non-urgent nature so they're the map light that's not lurking they're the foam that won't fill those very simple faults that make up probably 95% of our faults that come through so just to make it really easy for our volunteers to report a fault day and night whatever time that suits them just to make it really easy for them and I understand that you've started a little bit of a video production on the QR codes facility so we might keep the roll the tape so this is a quick demonstration of how the system works so the QR codes on the inside of the windscreen normally near the service sticker you simply scan it with your smart device and it takes you to a very simple form where you enter your brigade the type of appliance your contact details and name and of course a description of the fault so that we we get that at the demo workshop and then we can action that so that can be done you know the middle of the night on the way home from a fire call it can be done at 10 o'clock at night after training at a time that suits the volunteer rather than to wait to business hours to to ring the workshop or or send us an email or you know you know it just makes it very easy for the customer so when I hit submit what happens then so you get a little screen that tells you that it has been submitted and that we will action that so very very similar to if you send an email or ring the workshop then we'll go through our process and that's different at each workshop whether we get get involved to the talk to the captain send him a text right on the log put it on the whiteboard to say that we've we've actually actioned that fault that's all done awesome and I guess since since rolling it out and we there was a bit of announcement I think a couple of weeks ago two weeks ago where it was announced that this system was being rolled out across CFA how many are starting to see roll in from people using the QR code facility so it depends that workshop all of our vehicles fitted with the QR code Seymour have tried it Kangaroo Flutter trialing it so there's a few workshops around that are starting to use it but over the next 12 months obviously as Tim said we've got a lot of appliances that we need to get the code fitted up to when our workshop staff to be across how it works and they need to be trained so it will take a little bit of time before this is completely rolled out across the state but we'll yeah we'll endeavor to make sure it happens within about a 12 month period excellent and Steve again can't let you off the panel without asking a hard question and John was always the the diplomat it's true isn't it if you want to know something you got to ask a demo yeah looking if we don't know we'll make it up nice that's what I wanted to hear finally the truth has been revealed here right on the panel this evening a couple of questions still coming in and I guess yeah Tim Steve feel free to jump in here Anthony if you know the question so why does CFA not do a full refurb and rebuild of appliances after 15 years of service given we now have some 30 year plus appliances so a lot of it's to do with prioritization around budget we have I think that for a probably sick of hearing me talk about the 12.6 million dollars a year we get to to replace our you know over 2,200 appliances and effectively for the last few years we've had we really had an ability we have no ability to focus anything on anything other than the replacement of our heavy tankers which as the question states are certainly aging so the reality for us is that the funds just aren't there to to be able to do that the trucks are maintained to an exceptional standard by the DMOs and in many cases the hours that the pumps the pumps run and the kilometers of the trucks do just don't justify that sort of level of refurbishment anyway having said that though we are and we've spoken about this at some previous volunteer forums as well is we are starting to accelerate our plans around the around the recap sassing of things like our pumpers which is which is effectively a refurbishment of sorts so retain the back replace everything I'll return the back of pump and replace everything else and we can do that in a far more economical way in fact we've got our suppliers starting to have a look at what they need to do to get that in anger and we've got the first half dozen cab chassis coming coming into coming into see if they'll be able to do that awesome the next question I got in here is helmet bags what's the latest with helmet bags there's a couple of couple of questions around around helmet bags particularly for the new structural helmets yeah we're working with our engineering team and they're working with with their operational colleagues to come up with solutions for stirring the helmets specifically the structural helmets in the vehicles it's not a perfect solution we acknowledge that so we're trying to work out as many different solutions as we can to accommodate the helmets it's like trying to fit five basketballs in a cabin and we train them it's not an easy thing to do so and we've got you know there's a trade-off there of all the other equipment in the vehicle so yeah we're working we're working to try and find the best solutions possible and we acknowledge that you know it's not it's not perfect a bit more work to be done a bit more work to be done thank you well and I guess one of the things I did want to point out now I gotta say I got one in on the on the text line and a big a big shout out to to our CEO Natalie McDonald who has quite rightfully called me out this evening boys and their toys very male chauvinistic saying so I do apologize for that but that probably leads on to a nice little question Anthony do we have any female DMOs and if not why not and what can we do about it right at present at present we don't have any female DMOs we have had a number of apprentices come through over the years that have been that have been female and it's certainly been very much a focus for us on trying to ensure we get a little more gender diversity into the into the workforce there's you know plenty of plenty of people of all of all genders that can do the job and then they can you know that could certainly certainly you know improve that gender balance for us but at the moment we're finding it is a bit of a difficult task to to both attract and also retain a number of those a number of you know the DMOs over the journey so I guess you know in a very male dominated industry really isn't it yeah and you know 50% of the population yeah we really do need to be doing everything we can to increase diversity in the CFA including our workshops and the like and certainly I think I'm glad to hear that you know we are encouraging apprenticeships and the like that to increase to increase that so that's that's that's fantastic thank you a couple of questions here we've got we'll see have see if I looked at building any more BA vehicles similar to base waters that has the capacity refill on scene and how are we working towards a swap-and-go system for all districts Tim it was far as I'm aware we're not looking at building any more vehicles like the base water there's nothing on the books no no plans at the moment but it's all fits into a more strategic plan of how we service our BA's in the field and I think that Brett Boatman and his team are working in that space to to identify what the strategy is and then of course as the fleet team we'll we'll support them and build whatever is required to be built to meet that capability beautiful answer Tim and for everyone out there if you want to know who gets the question or put on the spot after I ask the hard question I look at everyone's prowl and see who's broken out into the largest cold sweat and generally they're the one I select so that's so another one I've got here is will the BA support vehicles be allocated at the districts rather than brigades and how do we apply for one through grants etc to obtain one of these new vehicles yeah so the the first two vehicles district a district level resources but terrarium if I'm wrong Tim but they are being managed by individual brigades is that I believe that's the plan yeah yeah so so they are going to brigade at this stage there's one at district there's one out of district 16 and I believe the other ones at district 6 at Cobden and we're using those to trial at the moment and to and to work through so we will definitely like we would definitely like to see these as a as vehicles we can put on to programs like VESIP and others into the future and you know a standard vehicle will be available for for brigades as well but there's there's full intent of CFA infrastructure to roll out to roll out a large number of these to support our ongoing BA strategy awesome another another question here in the chat but but sent through from email so thank you and that's can we start the theory training on the new vehicle type even if we don't have it yet in in our possession I think that's a really fantastic question because Anthony as you know every every fortnight of a Friday morning we have our incident review panel meeting we discuss actions and outcomes from incidents and and the like across the state and I know we're looking at videos and training type material for every single truck type in the fleet so I guess how are we going with with that and I guess what are some of the theory and what are some of the things that we're looking to achieve in doing that look a lot of it needs to focus on the difference between between the appliances that are already there versus the you know the appliances that are that are coming in so there's a bit a lot of technological changes between a 10 year old a 20 year old a 30 year old vehicle and the ones that we're delivering now you know so in many cases and and given the fact that we don't want to be you know taking up a whole lot of time with their volunteers for this sort of stuff we should be focusing on those elements that are that you know the differences and the and the key changes that people will experience as a part of that because I think some of the feedback and some of the learnings from from some of those ICAM investigations was particularly around the service exchange fleet and more importantly for those coming in from interstate we're operating on CFA appliances that you know the ability to again QR code Steve you'd be glad to hear into the future scan and watch a little video it on you know the truck how to use it some of its key safety features it's not a full training but at least it's giving people a bit of an understanding of you know what the truck is how to use it and and some of the key features of that so keep an eye out for those things that they are being worked through and I certainly I know Anthony and the team are looking to to progress those through I think it's a great initiative a safety initiative to ensure that our members are safe in operating of our vehicles so still looking for for those questions I'm not quite sure we've stumped Anthony yet so we've come close but I think there's still a few more few more in there or if we if we if we want to give Anthony a bit of a break and he's probably hoping we will let's see if we can stump Tim or Steve with some of those curly questions Anthony another one I'm afraid but probably a good news story work where we've had some developments we have we have so so the State Logistics Centre has started to receive from the first the first sets of work where so we have we have you know several thousand garments starting to come into the into the State Logistics Centre we we're expecting to receive about a thousand garments a week over the course of February and and through and through March so the production of those garments is well underway which is fantastic we've already received all our stocks of epaulets and belts and jackets and poor Shane had to find somewhere to put 18,000 jackets while we while we work through the while we work through getting the rest of the garments and start the start the pick and pack slight delay on our on our headwear our supplier tells us that it's sitting in a port in China trying to get on a ship so we're just we're just working through those and you know we won't let that stop us we'll we'll start to distribute even if we've got an issue with that I think most people have probably got a cap on most people have probably got that sort of stuff to wear in the interim while we while we work through that probably good a good ad the brigade nomination form to work wear a Jew back in on February the 4th we've we've got about 660 or so brigades that have that have sent us some that have sent us the forms already and that's that's fantastic and it's really important that we we get those back because they will give us the the ability to then send out the information to people on how to size how to you know how to do all those sorts of things to begin to begin the to begin the process which is fantastic and we were actually getting a couple of sizing sessions as well so up a little bit further north in 24 and 20 we're we're starting some sizing sessions we've we've picked up there because they're still in response level one and we're able to to move around and and do some do some work up there and the and the actuals of those two regions have certainly jumped on board and expressed a lot of interest in this so that's so that's fantastic I mean doing a bit of work at the State Logistics Center as well because this is a brand new brand new lines of clothing and we've we've actually had to build some brand new pick and pack lines so some some new racks have gone in and we're getting set up for not only this we're also going to use the same rack the same racking and pick and packing systems for the for the next-gen wildfire PPC when that when that starts to roll out later in the year we're also going to have a few people around that at State Champs up at Marupna as well so we're looking to get a bit of space in the corporate marquee there and we'll be running through some sizing up there so so Stephen Hill their project manager and his team will be will be running through doing some of that take the opportunity while we've got such a large group of the volunteers together in the one place so and I know I went to the scores be you know the State Logistics the other day and I did my sizing and I think one of the things that surprised me was what I thought I was size I was actually wasn't the case and so you know if you're inclined just to order that normally if I'm normally in an XL shirt I'll just grab an XL shirt they don't quite they're not quite the same so I think I'd really do encourage people to make sure that you do have opportunity to get in and get that sizing done get it done otherwise I think you might end up with some garments that are a little bit bigger than what you think they might be yeah so we're also setting out some instructions on self sizing which is good and if people follow those but I don't know about you mate but for me that's that's been a COVID impact around the whole changing in the sizing but that's a I thought it was the dryer it shanked the strength of pants so yeah yeah suit staying in the cupboard too long you know all those all those things yes awesome so um I'm going to give you a break for a little bit mate yeah you've been a champion tonight you've stepped up to the to the questions Tim you may or may not know this so it's all I'm just trying to give Anthony a bit of a break here but uh pumper tanker builds pumper tanker builds we have a pumper tanker prototype that's been completed and we're um we're in a phase of doing some further product development with that vehicle at the moment and we're looking forward to getting that to the brigade that's allocated to to get some feedback from them from a from a practical point of view so hopefully that'll happen sooner rather than later and yeah and then them from there I guess then there'll be a business case around if we if we go forward with pumper tankers you know what you know what they look like and how many so yeah pumper tankers are certainly are certainly a vehicle that our volunteers tell us that they've got a great operational people tell us they have a great need for that capability so yeah looking forward to seeing what we can develop over the coming that's awesome and the current prototype's actually in operational service isn't it? It started and I think it's off having a couple of modifications done to it at the moment but it's a few weeks away I think from from heading back out again. No awesome so it looks certainly you will you may see the the brand new prototype pumper tanker out and about if you do please feel free to stop and have a look at it and and give you feedback. Steve mate you didn't escape the questions it's come through the question from James we're logging a fault with the QR code generator notification email or some other to relevant BMT at the time of submission for awareness especially if crew from another brigade using at the time i.e. you know someone's on a strike team they've logged the fault using the QR code it currently is the system able to do that and what's what's your thinking for where I guess if it doesn't what might be possible? So that's a that's a really good question and and a good consideration but I think at the moment this is just phase one so this system does have some limitations you can't attach photos which should be really good for both the end user and the demo to pick up what's actually gone wrong which we we don't have that functionality and we don't have the functionality to be able to close the loop back to the brigade and so that it has been completed. So I think you know once we get it rolled out we can have a bit more of a look about what it looks like and what our needs are going forward from both the demo location and also volunteers they'll they'll give us some feedback on what it does well and what it doesn't so I think yeah let's get it rolled out let's see what it does well let's see what it doesn't do well and yeah and we can probably modify it from there. It's all about people using the system and then giving that feedback isn't it so you know and as we get that feedback in and suggestions and ideas from from people and such as the idea tonight allows us to develop our systems and understand how best we can modify them to suit the needs of our most important asset which is our people so absolutely. I think the feedback too we can get plenty of feedback on the system as Steve said it's sort of phase one and it'll help us build a case to to get some resources to develop it a bit more so yeah I think feedback's real important. And I given everything I've heard about DMOs Tim I'm pretty sure the conversations that'll be had the side of the truck I'm pretty sure they'll get the feedback that they need. Nick asks why was the Hinoe 3.C tanker removed from VESIP for brigades to purchase or upgrade older vehicles too? So the appliance list that's available in VESIP changes from time to time based on demand. I don't know why that specific vehicle was removed and I can't answer that off the off the cuff but I can certainly provide some information around that and I'll go and find out but the reality is is the vehicles that are available under VESIP do change over time based on how many of them are successful how many of them are needed what the needs of the organization are at any given time so they do vary so vehicles drop off and vehicles add on I remember adding on the we will be adding on the BA support so we do change those lists from time to time. Are we ever likely to see an ultra light on a Ranger cab chassis? The challenge there is weight and our people tell us water is really important and there'd be a compromise if we were to use a Ranger chassis we pushed the Landcruiser envelope to it's sort of as far as we can as far as we're comfortable to so Rang's is probably not not in the same spec but maybe an alternative spec. Because I think one of the important things for us is to I guess stay within what the OEM the original equipment manufacturer specifies because when we sort of go outside of those parameters the crass testing that they perform and some of the other testing that performs and they do at the factory tends to become a big questionable then doesn't it? It does and that's the challenge for us. Needing to understand what we're doing to the vehicle and making sure that we don't compromise the safety systems on the vehicle. No that's a fair point to be had as I said we safety is our number one priority and that's that is a key point to be made. Anthony you touched on before and please gentlemen jump in if you got something to add here or no you touched on before about the I guess the Pumper refurb program the New South Wales Back refurb program where are we at with that? Yeah so we're we're looking to engage the the supplier that looked after these for Fire Rescue New South Wales a company called Coopers Coopers Engineering and we actually have a meeting with them next week to further discuss the work that they did for New South Wales. We have purchased and taken delivery of the first of half a dozen Mercedes Atigo cab chassis and they'll be used as the as those as those vehicles to do that to do that trial to that trial refurbishment program with so it's moving it's moving slowly we've had we've had a lot of delays due to being able to get hold of the cab chassis but also be able to engage appropriately with Coopers given the COVID situation around the country and we're now at that point where you know where we're able to we're able to engage more fully with them and we'll we're starting that set in that next week. Awesome another another question here and Jamie asks yeah quite fairly I think yeah we'll see if I ever be inclined to allow support vehicles and FCVs to be moved from one brigade to another that struggles to get funding on the best of days to allow them to get a bit of support so when so I assume we're talking about we're talking about the CFA policies around vehicles replaced under vessel not being able to go to other brigades you know those sorts of things and the short answer is that that policy exists for a reason and that policy exists so that CFA's fleet or the or the cost of CFA's the cost of CFA maintaining its vehicles doesn't just blow out exponentially and the reality is there are there are hardship allowances and hardship provisions available under under vessel programs so so brigades can certainly apply for vehicles that are that are justified even if they don't necessarily have the ability to raise funds for their contribution so those sorts of things those sorts of things are available and I mean the simple the simplest part of the answer is that we're under these programs we're replacing these vehicles because they are probably at end of life we're replacing them for a reason so moving them on to another brigade is probably not the most appropriate use for them fair enough um again leading on to uh onto trucks a lot of questions in the chat about tanker replacement programs you know aging tanker fleet or appliance fleet should I say the news about a couple questions there about pumpers as well pumper tankers support vehicles under like now I understand you're doing a bit of work at the moment around some of our strategic asset management approach to I guess to ensure that CFA is compliant with government policy do you want to talk us through a bit about what you're working on and how that information will help us feed into you know a proper program of replacement yeah absolutely so um CFA's been um been a bit of a a bit of a victim of some of some underfunding in this space for a while for our asset replacement so effectively what that means for us is we're doing two things at the moment one is we're sitting down and we're actually working through the in a quantitative way um you know what what is the problem what do we need that's feeds into the capability work that's also being done feeds into our asset management plans and feeds into a you know a variety of other things that will allow us to you know to go to the to go to the gates of the treasury and say you know we get X unfortunately our need in order to continue to provide our volunteers what they need to do their job is Y you know and being able to mount those being able to mount those arguments it's it's starting to work a little more in the the CFA capability funding we we managed to get funding to replace 50 of our appliances that's a that's a big leap forward you add that on to the top of everything else that we're doing and I think this year Tim and his team are building about 192 appliances which will you know start to work through and replace a number of those vehicles we're also looking at things like our refurbishment programs where we're looking at the the types of vehicles that we're replacing so Karen spoke before about the ultra heavy tankers now 29 of those are coming in that's not 29 additional vehicles they will replace existing heavy tankers or existing other tankers where the where the regions and districts have indicated that you know that's an appropriate that's an appropriate replacement so a lot of good work being done in in that area that's that's good to hear ladies and gentlemen as promised the rains are starting to fall here in Cario so I do apologize if there is a bit of background noise as the thunder and lightning is is cracking you know certainly brings back memories of you know great southern land you know all the images of that on the back of Australia day somewhat probably appropriate Tim question on the chat yep uh you know legitimate question I guess raising a question around you spoke earlier about the helmet bags around the helmet bags in the heavy tanker sort of blocking the view for the crew leader and been a bit of a problem is that something that's been raised with you absolutely yeah so we've gotten a lot of feedback about the lack of situational awareness guys sitting in the back or firefighter sitting in the back half with the helmet bag so you know working with our with our operational colleagues we're looking at options there I know that down steve's way down down in these skips land they've raised some concerns and and we're looking at trialling a different layout I guess the challenge for us is you know if all the helmets have to be in the cabin it's it's it's really difficult I guess it's about you know okay how many do we need to have in the cabin can we put them in the lockers and if so where can we put them in steve's team I think you know looking at a couple of good options we're talking with Gary Ria about it Brett Boatman because they've been involved with with the helmet stowage program Gary with tankers Brett with with pumpers so we're you know I think we're in a position to to provide an alternative um yeah it's as I said before it's not perfect yeah look that's one of the challenges isn't it so yeah as equipment keeps evolving you know new types of equipment new models make those sort of things it's a bit of a ever-moving piece for dmos isn't it really you you just fit the fleet up for one piece of equipment then they go and change something with it and lo and behold it doesn't fit in its spot anymore um so you really do have a bit of a job and keeping abreast of all those changes and making sure that we make those modifications don't we absolutely i think steve's probably best place to talk about that amount of modifications you get on the books but uh yeah it's it's it's never ending tell us all about it steve helmet bags I guess they're they're there for firefighter safety they're there to secure the helmet um in case of an accident so um yeah it's a bit of a bit of give and take I suppose that it does remove a little bit of visibility which is yeah really unfortunate and offset in the back of an iveco tanker and I agree that does reduce a lot of visibility but also we need to secure those helmets and make sure that their firefighters are safe in cases an accident so that's a big challenge for us to try and make sure that you know we can we can get the both both of both best of both worlds there I suppose um talk us through some of the other mods that you're working through at the moment I think there's 29 currently on the list um and they're they're from safety improvements to reliability um you know very very simple stuff um you know we've we've done quite a lot and with our engineering team often um you know they'll identify something that can be improved and they'll come to the fleet team and make sure that we've got the capability to do it you know time frame um and we'll we'll engage with them work with them and you know roll out a suitable um yeah solution to make sure that it works and it's about bringing all the parts together and I I see you know Tim you pointed to the the stack over the back here that everyone uh that everyone I guess uh watching this can't see but you know following again an ICAM investigation that was undertaken some of the recommendations flowing from that we're now retrofitting uh appliances with you know high veers non-slip steps and handrail grips yeah that's right and um Karen was actually uh very much involved from the engineering perspective to uh to to determine the solution for the for the steps and the other pallets sitting over there was full of low voltage fuse removal uh stowage container so again you know the capability required um we needed to stow this equipment on the vehicles so we had to come up with a solution and you know the engineering team working with the DMAs come up with the the solution um yeah so we're always we're always got uh as Steve said you know at the moment it's about 27 but there's modifications all the time and and it's all about improving the safety and and the capability of our vehicles for our volunteers absolutely and thanks for Terrence for the heads up big storm cell about the hit to you uh warning I think I think we are starting to see the effects of that so thanks uh thanks Terrence and again please uh we do apologize for some of the glitches this evening uh it is as a result of the the atmospheric instability where we are but as I said it will be available online and you will be able to watch the entire thing ad-free after after the the forum this evening and that has just made me lose my train of thought to my next hard one to uh to you Steve so ah now I've remembered back in back in the day when I was a volo um in my brigade we pretty much put anything and everything on the on the truck anywhere what's the dangers of doing that yeah that's something we see quite regularly and it's about compliance it's about making sure that um their vehicles are roadworthy and safe so volunteers they like functionality they like um you know they're they're it's a gear close and easy to access but sometimes you know that hasn't been thought through 100 percent or a roadworthy item hasn't been considered in that and dash cameras are a good thing that we see fairly regularly stuck to the middle of the windscreen and you know they inhibit the curtains from coming down in a in a hurry which they probably will need to be if you ever need to use them hopefully that's not the case but yeah the last thing you want is a dash cam sitting in the middle of the the windscreen and it also inhibits the driver's vision when you're going through intersections and things like that so whilst they're a good tool for volunteers to use in their appliance you know they've they've got a repercussion for us as well so they are so i'm just going to preempt for two seconds let me just channel the audience because i reckon you've just triggered about a thousand questions so let me ask the question everyone's thinking there is a proliferation of them out there and i know certainly through i think the trust the dg park trust and the like um more and more so are we working on a bit of an engineering solution to how we might be able to to fit these dash cams or dancers know is it possible to work through a engineering solution we're waiting primarily on a decision on on the rules around the dash cams so once that comes out then and as you say the grants there's a there's a number of brigades out there that have been allocated those and yeah we'll have to come up with a solution but at the moment we're not working on anything at the moment so fair enough and i think that's a very nice way of saying it's on your desk chief how about you pull it out from the bottom and and deal with it so thanks tim and i guess the moral of your story steve is uh you know we do standard stowage standard placement for a reason a keeps the vehicles adr compliant and you know roadworthy and and the like and also assists with vehicle stability um so you know a hundred a hundred kilos of chain in an offside locker is probably not the best thing to do um yeah so i think the best thing is um if you if your brigade's considering a modification talk to the demo first before you carry out and we'll we can advise on whether that's uh it's compliant modification or whether we need to do some work on that and we have a process we have a we have a defined um modification request um process and you know if uh you know we may have already fitted it up somewhere else in the rest of the state and we may already have a solution that stands fitting yeah for that type of appliance yeah right excellent um so look i think uh i think i might just quickly now throw to brad on the on the emails have we got any questions on the uh on the email brad yeah we've got one come through for tim uh tin regards to correspondence about when dmo's are on site and so feedback is flagged there's been moments where they've been unaware of a dmo being at their premises uh and and to attend uh to service and and it's also conversations in regards to open communication regards to uh matters in regards to vehicles any anything that needs to be attended to so i guess it's a conversation about the open correspondence about when dmo's are on site and likewise tim in regards to awareness about when we have issues with vehicles or or it parts the fleet yeah thanks brad i think um this one we well well handled by steve um so i brought him but look yes that that closing the loop making sure that um we communicate with uh with the brigades is really important and um we have slightly different processes around the state but steve's probably better than most uh most dmo's make every effort to um to make contact with someone from the brigade um to ensure that you know they know we're coming and um and all we will fix that ordered parts and um and keep our customers in the loop with what we're doing but uh you know the workload sometimes you know that doesn't occur for whatever reason or we might not want to annoy a captain in the middle of the day when they're they're busy doing their own stuff so um yeah we can probably take that on board i guess and and improve some of our processes that's and i think um um yeah life happens and things get busy and and that sort of stuff so i think that's generally acknowledged by uh by our people and you know they've heard it here tonight that you know that the dmo's do see brigades as their customers and you know they want to do right thing right thing by them and i think um you spoke before steve about you know some of the technology increases some of the things and perhaps in the future looking at you know that almost like a service type application that does notify a brigade you know when when the when it's received when a dmo's been scheduled you know all those sort of things is what's possible um and i guess you know we need to be looking at you know the use of technologies to allow us to uh to be able to facilitate that so i think they're they're some of the things that um we could probably turn out turn our minds to in the future but i um but thanks for for raising that uh on the email i think it's it's very valid and you heard it here tonight um the dmo's love to look after their their customers and again from what i'm seeing in the chat the customers love love you so um anthony service exchange vehicles our question here about any plans to increase the quantity and spread of the moving forward i guess in particular the pumpers um what's your thoughts for that one look pumpers service exchange vehicles have always been have always been an issue for us um recently we've we've actually lost a couple of service exchange vehicle pumpers out of the fleet because we got to the point where there was a specific need in a number of brigades and uh the decision was was taken um you know the operational decision was taken to redeploy a couple of those pumpers into brigades which is which is further exacerbated the issue at dmo's are very good at at at servicing or trying to trying to um trying to manage the servicing so that we can you know we're possible manage things within the within the service exchange vehicle availability but the problems often come when we have um when we have issues that are that are unplanned or or you know or or reactive maintenance so you know we do the best we can to manage um to manage those vehicles um a pumper is a very expensive piece of kit and unfortunately we don't have the luxury of having uh of having enormous numbers of them sitting around waiting for uh you know waiting for them to be required as a service exchange vehicle but um you know all I can say is that the guys do a great job managing them as you know the best they possibly can and uh and um you know like everything we unfortunately have some limitations well members as the rain steadily a roll in I'm sure the sound crew are desperately listening to the rain um I think the weather has beat us ladies and gentlemen so we might just wrap up tonight's forum on that note please thank uh thank the panel thank you for coming on Anthony thanks for being a champion as always I always throw out the challenge I know sometimes it must it must annoy you but again you've stepped up you've asked the answered the hard questions and I think our members are gratefully appreciative of that again it will be available on members online to be able to watch the video after after this event likewise when the when the video did drop out for a little bit you will be able to see what what didn't go to air even the bloopers included so please watch watch back afterwards for to see what what happened on the on the panel here this evening always keen for feedback so if you do have feedback on tonight's forum or feedback in general with what you want to see uh whether it be on the panel discussing issues or what part of the state whether it be brigade another another cfa facility an insight into what it means to be in the cfa please send that through internal comms at cfa ladies and gentlemen the rain has completely bit me and I bid you good night thank you and thank you for watching this evening