In fact, between July 1 and September 30 last year, the CFA crew missed arriving at a job within eight minutes only once — by six seconds.
And it was a false alarm at a food manufacturer in Echuca East.
“The reason we missed it was because of the roadworks going on in Ogilvie Ave, so it was harder for our volunteers to get to the station,” captain Rob Amos said.
‘‘Volunteers do not have any special clearance. They have to obey the road rules like everyone else. That’s the challenge of having a volunteer fire service.
‘‘We’re working hard to manage these processes.’’
The latest emergency response times show the CFA crew responded to 11 ‘hazard class two’ incidents, reaching 10 of them within eight minutes (a rate of 91 per cent).
It took an average of seven minutes and 47 seconds for crews from any brigade area to reach 90 per cent of emergency incidents, according to the CFA figures.
‘‘We’re pretty happy with the result,’’ Mr Amos said.
It’s slightly down from the previous quarter, where the Echuca brigade responded to 11 ‘hazard class two’ incidents and arrived within eight minutes 100 per cent of the time, taking an average of seven minutes and 45 seconds.
The same quarter the year before saw 10 incidents responded to, all in under eight minutes, with an average time of seven minutes and 29 seconds.
CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said the data highlighted the hard work of CFA firefighters.
“Behind these results we find the hard work and consistent service of our volunteers who continue to respond to emergencies such as grass and bushfires, structural fires, HAZMAT incidents, road accidents, rescue incidents and more to keep the Victorian community safe,” he said.
“I’m proud of the way they were able to continue to do that throughout the worldwide pandemic, which led to significant lockdowns in Victoria during this quarter.”
With three people dying in residential fires in Victorian CFA areas during the period, CO Heffernan also encouraged locals to install smoke alarms in all recommended areas of their homes and to check the batteries regularly.
Echuca and district residents are also reminded fire restrictions end in Campaspe Shire at 1am on Monday, March 29.
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