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General News

15 July, 2024

Maryborough attends historic number of callouts for 2023-24, with more volunteers needed

In the past year, local brigade members responded to a record number of callouts — with over 150 incidents attended, including a destructive fire at the Salvos Op Shop. The “busy” period was marked by 157 turnouts, which according to a newly...

By Prealene Khera

Maryborough attends historic number of callouts for 2023-24, with more volunteers needed - feature photo

In the past year, local brigade members responded to a record number of callouts — with over 150 incidents attended, including a destructive fire at the Salvos Op Shop.

The “busy” period was marked by 157 turnouts, which according to a newly released report, is an all time high for the Maryborough Fire Brigade in its 163-year history.

At its recent Annual General Meeting, Captain Darryl Wagstaff handed down his report for 2023-2024 — detailing the brigades’ performance over the 12 month timeframe.

A majority of the events attended related to fires or explosions, followed by good intent calls and accidents. However, the most significant incident occurred late last year, and required assistance from six other local brigades.

“Our major fire response this year was the building fire in Alma Street which involved The Maryborough Salvation Army’s shop with an extensive damage bill,” Captain Wagstaff noted in the report.

“I must commend the efforts of all personnel involved in containing the fire to the original building.”

While acknowledging volunteers’ commitment towards the wellbeing of the community, Captain Wagstaff said it was “becoming more difficult” to respond to emergency situations.

“It’s been a very busy but a good year for us,” he said.

“We haven’t failed to get out the door to any call as yet which is great because it’s getting harder for volunteers to be able to get away from work and get to the station.

“Our focus to combat that is going to be on recruiting more people — if we can get additional volunteers in, that will take the pressure off of the main core of firefighters.”

Residents can also help ease the pressure on CFA members, by being mindful of the reports they make.

“A lot of the calls we get are often false alarms,” Captain Wagstaff said.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any control over that and we’re trying to do a public campaign around the same.

“Some people need to do a bit of investigation before they ring because there’s a number of consequences around false alarms — the brigades’ resources are being diverted away from a proper fire, and away from someone needing urgent assistance.”

Apart from the cautionary messaging around false alarms, Captain Wagstaff’s report highlights countless positives as well.

Overall, the brigade has much to boast about, including training and fundraising successes — with the latter supported by donations totalling $1189.

There have also been two important developments:

• New generation wildfire personal protection clothing has now been delivered to all operational Maryborough members after the long-awaited rollout.

• Discussions are continuing for the establishment of a Maryborough Emergency Services Hub accommodating ambulance, SES and CFA.

“We look forward to a positive outcome in the future,” Captain Wagstaff said regarding the possibility of a centralised hub.

“It’ll basically be three buildings for the three services, built on one location.

“I think it’ll allow us to interact with each other on a more regular basis, and we could potentially also have a common training area — it’ll be quite [efficient].”

Having ended 2023-2024 on a high note, Captain Wagstaff has even higher expectations for the next year.

“The current 2024-2025 period will look different in the sense that we’ll have some new members join us, we will have our false alarms decrease and we will be able to support the community as best as we can,” he said.

“And to help us achieve those goals, the community can be a bit more vigilant when they report a fire and be generally [careful].

“It’s also important to remember that at the end of the day, we couldn’t do what we do without the support and understanding of family members, employers and co-workers — with this support the brigade can continue to respond effectively.”

A breakdown of when incidents occurred in the past financial year.
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