Today’s question is about the right of members of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (the CFA) at access a significant local industry. I won’t name the industrial site, but one can imagine it is a large, complex secured site. In response to a fire call:
… dedicated Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers were shockingly denied access … by on-site service personnel. The denial was allegedly based on the volunteers’ status as non-Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) members, relegating them to a second-class citizen status.
These CFA volunteers, despite being highly trained and capable professionals, were unjustly hindered from contributing to critical tasks within the major … facility. The denial of their access raises serious concerns about the safety of the community and the employees located within the facility. particularly given their expertise in handling structure fires and years of dedicated response into the [facility] …
This incident not only undermines the dedication and commitment of these firefighters but also jeopardises the safety and well-being of the communities they serve. This matter and that such discrimination against CFA volunteers should be made public to the communities effected by such actions.
It’s not my job to rung public information campaigns or to editorialise on the alleged conduct. My job is to comment on the law, in this case the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 (Vic) and the Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958 (Vic).
I have confirmed that the site in question is with a Fire Rescue Victoria fire district but, I am told the nearest fire appliance is a CFA appliance and there can sometimes be a 4-5min difference between the arrival of [the CFA] … and FRV’.
The CFA is responsible for the provision of fire services in country Victoria (s 20). To do that officers of the CFA are given the necessary powers to respond to an emergency. In particular s 30(1) says, emphasis added:
Where the Chief Officer believes on reasonable grounds that there is danger of fire occurring or where a fire is burning or has recently been extinguished anywhere within the country area of Victoria the Chief Officer for the purpose of preventing the occurrence of a fire, of extinguishing or restricting the spread of the fire or of protecting life or property shall have and may exercise the following powers and authorities:…
(c) He shall have authority either alone or with others under his command to enter upon any land house building or premises and if necessary to force open any outer or inner doors of any house or building which may be on fire or in the near neighbourhood of any fire for the purpose of taking any steps which he deems necessary for any of the purposes aforesaid, and he may take or give directions for taking any apparatus required to be used at a fire into through or upon any land house building or premises which he considers convenient for the purpose;
(d) He may take any measures which in the circumstances are reasonable and which appear to him to be necessary or expedient for any of the purposes aforesaid and in particular he may cause any house building or structure to be entered into and taken possession of or pulled down or otherwise destroyed or removed, and any fences to be pulled down or otherwise destroyed or removed, and any undergrowth trees scrub grass stubble weeds or other vegetation to be burnt or otherwise destroyed or removed;…
(g) If a person is interfering, by his or her presence or otherwise, with the operations of any brigade or group of brigades or is in or on any land, building or premises that is burning or threatened by fire, the Chief Officer may—
(i) order the person to withdraw and may include in the order a direction to immediately leave any area affected by the fire by the safest and shortest route; and
(ii) in the event that the person fails or refuses to withdraw—remove the person or direct a member of a fire brigade or a police officer present at the fire to remove the person;…
(i) The Chief Officer may take such other measures as appear necessary for the protection of life and property.
The Chief Officer can delegate these powers ‘to any person by name or to the holder of an office or position approved by the Authority’ (s 28). That is, the Chief Officer may (and I infer has) delegated these powers to relevant officer holders eg the captains of local CFA brigades.
It follows that if this industrial site was in country Victoria, the officer in charge of the CFA response, assuming that he or she held the Chief Officer’s delegation could direct the ‘on-site service personnel’ to ‘withdraw’ and direct members of the fire brigade or the police to remove them and the CFA could enter the site, with force if necessary, to perform their fire control functions. But this site was within a FRV fire district?
The Country Fire Authority Act s 2(1) says:
It is the intention of the Parliament that the Country Fire Authority and Fire Rescue Victoria establish processes that will ensure that they—
(a) promote collaboration and coordination between fire services agencies to best meet the safety needs of the community; andrecognise the importance of maintaining capacity to respond to peaks in demand for fire services within fire services agencies; and
(b) recognise and value the contribution of volunteer brigades; and
(c) recognise that both volunteer firefighters and career firefighters are vital to delivering safe and sustainable fire services; and
(d) maintain the ability of fire services agencies to respond to critical incidents, to prevent and suppress fires and to protect life and property.
An identical clause appears in the Fire Rescue Victoria Act (s 2A). The CFA Act also says (s 20AC) that:
… Fire Rescue Victoria must, subject to operational requirements, request the assistance of all volunteer brigades located in the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district for the purposes of endeavouring to—
(a) prevent or suppress a fire in the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district (including preventing a fire spreading to the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district from outside the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district); or
(b) protect life or property in the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district.
Section 93B provides that the CFA may provide firefighting services outside the country area of Victoria when it is requested to do so. These provisions make explicit the expectation that FRV and CFA will work together, and we can infer that is being done when the CFA are responded to this industrial site.
Consistent with these provisions is s 33(2)(c) which says
The powers and authorities conferred by this Act on the Chief Officer in respect of any district are exercisable as follows:…
(c) If there is danger of fire occurring or a fire is burning … at a place in any part of the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district … by the Chief Officer or any officer in charge of any brigade or brigades who is present at that place.
It follows that the officer in charge of the CFA brigade can exercise those powers listed under s 30 and could force entry into the premises. Of course just because one has, in theory, the legal power does not mean one should, one has to consider the risk to those involved in the use of force. Firefighters do not presumably volunteer to get into physical fights with security staff so alternatives to force need to be considered.
Discussion
The intention of the legislation is that there will be a seamless fire service so that if a person calls triple zero – or a fire alarm is triggered – regardless of where in Victoria a fire service will attend and whether that’s FRV or the CFA should not matter. I imagine both police and FRV would expect that an estate owner would not need to be forced to let the CFA in to do their job.
Giving a large industrial site will have (and does have) its own emergency management team and procedures, the appropriate response may be to raise the issue with FRV and the onsite emergency management team to resolve the instructions that are being given to security and other staff. This may be more effective than a ‘name and shame campaign’ particularly if it turns out the decisions was that of a misguided security officer rather than a corporate policy.
POSTSCRIPT 1
When I was first working on this answer I thought I found a section that said the CFA could exercise their s 30 powers in a FRV fire district in the absence of anyone from FRV. A provision to that effect is in place for FRV (see Fire Rescue Victoria Act s 55E(4)), but after working in it – for hours – today I could not find it so I assume I just imagined it. But if anyone is aware of a section I’ve missed, do please let me know.
POSTSCRIPT 2
After writing the above, and a different conclusion, tiggerific2014 wrote a comment pointing me to s 33(2)(c) and confirming that I indeed did not imagine it. I have updated the post accordingly.
This blog is made possible with generous financial support from the Australasian College of Paramedicine, the Australian Paramedics Association (NSW), Natural Hazards Research Australia, NSW Rural Fire Service Association and the NSW SES Volunteers Association. I am responsible for the content in this post including any errors or omissions. Any opinions expressed are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or understanding of the donors.
Australian Emergency Law 
What is interesting is that regardless of what some “Emergency Response Team” members may believe, they have zero standing under the law. Other than providing on site first aid or initial fire suppression as part of a work site plan, they have no authority once external agencies are called. They may have technical expertise, but this gives them no powers or authority.
Who is responded to their site after a call for service is none of their business; that is an issue between both the respective fire services and the government.
Like you say, it may be just the actions of a Paul Blart mall cop on the gate, but even so, Paul Blart and his colleagues need to step aside and let the grown ups deal with it…..
The FRV Act, Section 32B covers Action on Alarm of fire, it indicates it is based on members of units but direction and powers to extinguish is a senior member of operational staff can do a number of things – including control and direction of any unit present and of all persons assisting unit or units at the scene.
It suggests to me that CFA have no powers to do anything until FRV attends and anything CFA does is based on implied consent or similar before they are directed as such.
It’s true the FRV Act refers to units which are units established under that Act so does not include the CFA. In my postscript 1 I did ask for assistance in finding a section I couldn’t now locate and the brains trust came good. Section 33(2)(c) gives the CFA the power to force entry within a FRV fire district in the absence of an FRV brigade.
Or seemingly not! 33(2)c covers it as tigerrific2014 identified.
And at times whilst legislation doesn’t always make sense – the model of the CFA powers apply in the FRV area in the absence of FRV being on scene (from a practical viewpoint) is useful. This means that CFA firefighters don’t need to have a different set of SOP’s to manage or run an incident – they can run them as they would normally without needing to exercise different rules or operations (as the FRV powers are slightly different to CFA and its obligations are different too)
Are you looking for s33(2)(c) of the Country Fire Authority Act?
that’s it! gee I thought I was going mad! I’ll update the post