Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) is a fire and rescue service in the state of Victoria, Australia, that provides firefighting, rescue, HAZMAT and Emergency Medical Response services in areas of metropolitan Melbourne and major regional centres throughout Victoria.
FRV operates 85 fire stations with full-time staff firefighters, around half of which are in the Melbourne metropolitan area, and the remainder in regional cities and large towns throughout the state. 34 of these stations which are classified as peri-urban and regional stations, are co-located with volunteer brigades of the Country Fire Authority (CFA).
FRV was formed on 1 July 2020 by a merger of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), a fully career service responsible for much of the Greater Melbourne area, with the 1400 career firefighters of the CFA, some of whom had operated in "integrated" staff and volunteer brigades on the Melbourne urban fringe and in other centres. Ex-FRV Commissioner Ken Block stated on 1 July 2020 that under the CFA and MFB merge; Fire Rescue Victoria is now made up of more than 3600 operational firefighters.
History
With the passage of the Fire Brigades Act 1890 by the Parliament of Victoria, the colony of Victoria's fire services were divided into two components. The Metropolitan Fire Brigade, largely a paid professional force, was established to serve the Metropolitan Fire District, roughly encompassing the area within a ten-mile radius of the Melbourne CBD; and the volunteer brigades in remainder of the colony was placed under the control of the Country Fire Brigades Board. Several reforms to the fire services over the following half-century left this basic structure in place, and in 1958 the MFB and what had become the Country Fire Authority were re-established under their own Acts of Parliament to, respectively, provide full-time fire services to the MFD, and to establish, coordinate and fund fire brigades in the rest of the state, whether "permanent or volunteer".
The Acts provided for the boundaries of the Metropolitan Fire District to be reviewed and altered, and in the 1960s the MFD was expanded to cover most of what was then metropolitan Melbourne. It was, however, to be the last significant such expansion. From around the same time, the United Firefighters Union, which represented MFB employees, began to campaign for the amalgamation of MFB and CFA in combination with a significant expansion of the paid firefighting force. The move was resisted by the CFA Officers' Association and senior management, as well as conservative governments unsympathetic to the UFU. When a Labor state government in 1982, for the first time in 27 years, it immediately set about reforming the fire services, and proposed governing the MFB and CFA under a single Victorian Fire and Emergency Services Board, with a general manager responsible for the day-to-day operation of each service. Volunteers' associations strenuously opposed the idea, arguing that Labor governments would use the opportunity to allocate fewer resources to country firefighting, and that a Melbourne-based bureaucracy was incapable of understanding the needs of country firefighters.
Following the Black Saturday bushfires, the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (2009 VBRC) recommended that a Fire Commissioner be appointed to advise on the boundary between the two services, the Metropolitan Fire District.
The origins of the service created significant political controversy. The genesis for the proposal to split paid and volunteer firefighters, creating two separate services where the integrated turnout model would no long apply, was to resolve an industrial dispute arising from Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the CFA and the UFU.
Governance Legislation The Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958, amended and retitled from the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Act 1958, establishes the Fire Rescue Commissioner as the head of a body corporate named Fire Rescue Victoria, the successor in law to the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board. The functions of FRV set out by the Act are: The Act also requires FRV to assist in the response to any major emergency within Victoria, in cooperation with other emergency service organisations and under the direction of Emergency Management Victoria (EMV). The Act grants FRV broad powers to carry out its functions as directed by the Commissioner. Additional powers and duties of FRV and the Commissioner are established by other legislation, including: Electricity Safety Act 1998 Emergency Management Act 1986 Emergency Management Act 2013 Gas Safety Act 1997 Building Act 1993 Building Regulations 2018.
In the State Emergency Response Plan published by EMV, FRV is the control agency within the FRV Fire District for accidents, including gas leaks, hazardous materials incidents and collapses; fires and explosions; and transport, industrial, high angle and confined space rescues. It supports CFA with these incidents outside the FRV Fire District and other agencies as required.
The Fire Rescue Commissioner and any Deputy Commissioners are appointed by the Governor of Victoria on the advice of the Minister responsible for fire services, for a period of not longer than five years. The Minister may give the Commissioner general direction on policies and priorities of Fire Rescue Victoria but has no power to make operational or strategic decisions, such as on the location of fire stations or the conduct of firefighting operations.
Fire District Review Panel The FRV Act establishes a three-member Fire District Review Panel required to report at least every four years, or on the request of the Minister, on whether the boundaries Fire Rescue Victoria Fire District should be altered to provide for appropriate emergency services coverage. Members of the Review Panel are required to have expertise in fire and emergency services policy, but must not be current members of a Victorian fire service, firefighters' union or volunteers' association.
The final decision on whether to alter the FRV Fire District boundaries is that of the Minister. However, any recommendations of the Review Panel must be made publicly available by both FRV and CFA, regardless of whether they are accepted.
The Fire District Review Panel mechanism was initially recommended by the Royal Commission into the 2009 bushfires. It is intended to provide an objective, independent decision-making process for determining where professional and volunteer firefighters operate, in order to alleviate some of the tensions which led to the formation of FRV. However, the initial FRV Fire District was not subject to the Review Panel process.
Structure The Fire Rescue Commissioner is supported by five Deputy Commissioners and a Deputy Secretary. One Deputy Commissioner is attached to the Office of the Fire Rescue Commissioner. Two operational regions, North & West and South, East & Central, are led by Deputy Commissioners. Two further Deputy Commissioners are assigned to the portfolios of Strategy, Community Safety and Operational Training. The Deputy Secretary leads non-operational and corporate services.
Each of the North & West and South, East & Central regions are further divided into five districts, as follows: North & West South, East & Central Northern Central Western 1 Eastern Western 2 Southern 1 Western 3 Southern 2 North & West Regional South & East Regional
Stations and equipment
Appliance overview
All FRV stations operate at least one pumper or pumper tanker, with stations 1 (Eastern Hill) and 42 (Newport) operating an Ultra Large Pumper. Aerial and specialist appliances are located across the Melbourne area and in many of the regional cities, from where they also provide support into CFA areas. Code Appliance typeAPAerial Pumper BA Breathing Apparatus BS Breathing Apparatus Support CE Concept Electric Pumper (EVIE) CU Control Unit (Command Bus) DC District Car FB Fireboat HZ Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) LP Ladder Platform P Pumper PP Pumper Platform PT Pumper Tanker RHB Rehabilitation R Rescue T Transporter TB TeleboomTR Technical Rescue UP Ultra Large Pumper
A system of modular "pods", carried by Transporters fitted with hydraulic lift arms, is also used to support specialised operations. Code Pod type BA Breathing Apparatus BAC Breathing Apparatus Compressor BAT Breathing Apparatus Transport BDS Bulk Decontamination Support CEP Community Events Pod DFS DEBRiS Fireground Support Pod ERM Equipment and Resource Management FMA Fitness Module FDA/B Fire Duty Support FOA Foam Module FXH Flexible Habitat HAR High Angle Rescue HLA/B Hose Layer HR Heavy Rescue Support HZS HAZMAT Support MAS Multi Agency Support MLA Mechanical Loader RDA Rapid Decontamination TIM Timber Rescue Support TR Technical Rescue USR Urban Search and Rescue WER Waterways Emergency Response WRM Water Recycling Module
Stations No Name District FRV appliances Co-located with CFA/AV Pumper Aerial Specialist & support 1 Eastern Hill Central P1A, P1B, UP1 LP1 CU1A, CU1B (When Required), DC1A, RHB1 2 West Melbourne Central P2A, P2B 3 Carlton Central P3 R3^ (Getting new Rescue, current will go to reserve) Yes (AV) 4 Brunswick Central P4 5 Broadmeadows Northern PT5 6 Pascoe Vale Northern PT6 7 Thomastown Northern PT7 TB7 R7, DC7A, DC7B, BS7 8 Burnley Complex Training and administration facility, multiple training pumpers and other FRV appliances located there 9 Somerton Northern P9, PT9 10 Richmond Central P10 TB10 T10A, T10BPods: BA, BD, FDS,GP, HART, HL, HR,USAR-1, TRS 11 Epping Northern PT11 12 Preston Northern P12 13 Northcote Central P13 14 Bundoora Northern PT14, P14 15 Heidelberg Northern P15 16 Greensborough Northern PT16 17 Donnybrook (Number allocated for future expansion) Northern TBA TBA TBA 18 Hawthorn Central P18 19 North Balwyn Eastern PT19 20 Box Hill Eastern P20A, P20B DC20 22 Ringwood Eastern PT22 TB22 23 Burwood Eastern P23 Pod: WRM-5 24 Glen Iris Southern 1 P24 25 Oakleigh Southern 1 P25 TB25 (Currently running as TB44), LP25 R25, DC25 26 Croydon Eastern P26, PT26 27 Nunawading Eastern PT27 R27, RHB27^ 28 Vermont South Eastern PT28 29 Clayton Southern 1 PT29 30 Templestowe Eastern PT30 31 Glen Waverley Southern 1 P31, PT31 32 Ormond Southern 1 P32 33 Mentone Southern 1 PT33 34 Highett Southern 1 P34, PT34 35 Windsor Central P35A, P35B LP35 38 South Melbourne Central P38A, P38B BA38, BS38, HZ38 39 Port Melbourne Central P39A, P39B FS39 also respond nearby fireboats:FB1, FB2, FB4, FB6. 40 Laverton Western 1 PT40 41 St Albans Western 2 PT41 42 Newport Western 1 P42, UP42 43 Deer Park Western 2 P43 44 Sunshine Western 2 PT44TB44 (Getting replaced by a new Pumper Platform R44, DC44A, DC44BPods: ERM, WRM–3 45 Brooklyn (formerly Spotswood) Western 1 P45 46 Altona Western 1 PT46 47 Footscray Western 1 P47 LP47 T47Pods: FDS, HL, ML 48 Taylors Lakes Western 2 PT48 50 Ascot Vale Central P50 51 Keilor Western 2 P51, PT51 52 Tullamarine Western 2 PT52 53 Sunbury Western 2 P53 Yes 54 Greenvale Western 2 P54 Yes 55 Caroline Springs Western 2 P55 Yes 56 Melton Western 2 P56 R56 Yes 57 Tarneit Western 1 P57 58 Point Cook Western 1 P58 Yes 59 Derrimut Western 1 PT59A, PT59B RHB59^, DC59, BS59^ (Getting 68's old BS) 60 VEMTC Craigieburn Training and administration facility, multiple training pumpers and other FRV appliances located there 61 Lara Western 3 P61 HZ61 Yes 62 Corio Western 3 P62A, P62B Yes 63 Geelong City Western 3 P63A, P63B LP63 R63^ (Getting new Rescue, current will go to reserve) Yes 64 Belmont Western 3 P64 Yes 65 Armstrong Creek (future – under construction) Western 3 P65 TBA TBA Will be (CFA) 66 Ocean Grove Western 3 P66 Yes 67 Ballarat City North & West Regional P67A, P67B LP67 No (CFA separate) 68 Lucas North & West Regional P68 HZ68, BS68^ (Getting New BS), T68Pods: TR 70 Warrnambool North & West Regional P70 P70C* PP70 T70Pods: TR Yes 71 Portland North & West Regional P71 Yes 72 Mildura North & West Regional P72