Cardinia brigades respond on time

Garry Cook said the incident response data highlighted CFA members’
commitment across all types of emergencies, whether bushfires, house fires, road accidents or emergency medical response.

By Jessica Anstice

The Cardinia Shire’s Country Fire Authority’s response times remained steady at the beginning of the year, data from CFA revealed.

The statistics, released on Friday 31 July, showed that Pakenham Fire Brigade attended 136 incidents between 1 January to 31 March – an ever slight increase from 136 the same time last year.

However the brigade’s service times were a bit longer this year, with the unit averaging a response time of 9.38 minutes, compared to 7.18 in 2019.

In Berwick, the local brigade was called out to 108 incidents and averaged a response time of 8.41 minutes between January and March – a positive decrease from 10.04 minutes the previous year.

Officer Fire Brigade were also a little quicker this quarter, averaging an impressive 7.24, while the same period in 2019 recorded 11.12 minutes.

The average response time for Beaconsfield Fire Brigade in 2019 was 9.43 minutes, however this year they set the bar high, with a prompt average of 7.38 minutes.

Across the state, CFA brigades responded to 12,666 incidents, down from 13,577 incidents during the same quarter the year before, more than half of which required an emergency response

During January and March, firefighters battled some of the worst bushfires in the state’s history.

Across the extremely busy and challenging period, the new data showed that overall the community received a fire service within the standard response time in 88 percent of emergencies.

“Not only did they help fight some of the most devastating bushfires that Victoria has seen for a long time, but our firefighters also upheld an amazing service to their own communities and I could not be more proud,” CFA Acting Chief Officer Garry Cook said.

Mr Cook said the incident response data highlighted CFA members’
commitment across all types of emergencies, whether bushfires, house fires, road accidents or emergency medical response.

“It goes to show that while a lot of focus was on bushfire safety during summer, residential fires were also devastating to our community,” he added.


“We’re now in winter, where the risk of house fires is statistically higher, and I urge all community members to help us save lives by installing smoke alarms in all bedrooms and living areas and checking them regularly to make sure that they are working.”