The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) is a government department that is responsible for fire and emergency services in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The department came into being in 2012 as a result of the Perth Hills Bush Fire review.DFES is responsible for the management, training and funding of career and volunteer Services including: * The Bush Fire Service (BFS) * Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) * Career Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS or FRS) * Volunteer Fire and Emergency Service (VFES) * State Emergency Service (SES) * Volunteer Marine Rescue Service (VMRS)

History

The DFES was formerly known as the Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA), a statutory government authority created in January 1999 to administer the following legislation within the state of

: * Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia Act 1998 * Fire Brigades Act 1942 * Bush Fires Act 1954 * Emergency Services Levy Act 2002 * Emergency Management Act 2005 In the July 2017 Western Australian machinery of government changes, the department remained unaffected.

Fire and Rescue Service of Western Australia

FireSafetyEducationCentreMuseum Perth smc

The inaugural meeting of the Fire Brigades' Board was held on 16 January 1899. This later led to the establishment of the Western Australian Fire Brigades' Board in 1909. WA Fire Brigades updated their name in 1995 to the Fire and Rescue Service of Western Australia, to more accurately reflect the service provided to the communities of Western Australia.A Centenary of Service, The Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia, 1999 In 1999, with the creation of FESA, brought together the Fire and Rescue Service, and the Bush Fire Service to form the Fire Services Division of FESA. The Fire and Rescue Service and Bush Fire Service actively maintain their original identities. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services was established in 2012 and replaced FESA. The first Fire and Emergency Commissioner Wayne Gregson was appointed. Wayne Gregson is a former WA Police Assistant Commissioner. A new state of the art headquarters is located at Stockton Bend, Cockburn Central. This building includes the state and metropolitan operations centres, statewide communications centre, operations/capability commands and corporate services.

Structure

DFES operates under the Emergency Services Minister of the Government of WA and is the Hazard Management Agency (HMA) for

cyclones In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

, floods, storms,

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

, structural collapse,

HAZMAT Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabi ...

incidents, earthquakes and fire. Their operational branch comprises Metropolitan Operations, Country Operations and Operations Capability and oversees the following services: The Career Fire and Rescue Service of Western Australia (FRS or CFRS) consists of 1,190 paid firefighters working from 25 metropolitan stations and 4 country stations. The Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) is a volunteer service predominantly attending motor vehicle accidents, structure fires and HAZMAT incidents outside of metropolitan areas. In 2019 the VFRS had 2,371 volunteer firefighters in 94 brigades across the state. The Bush Fire Service (BFS) is a volunteer service tasked with attending any fire outside of a gazetted fire district within a brigade's local government area. They predominantly combat

bushfires A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

and conduct

hazard reduction burning A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, is a fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. A control ...

on a local level. As of 2019, there are 566 Bush Fire Brigades (BFBs) with 19,521 volunteers. The Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services (VFES) is also a volunteer service. It was established to combine the resources of any combination of a BFS Brigade, a VFRS Brigade, VMRS Group or an SES Unit to replace the Volunteer Fire Services (VFS) and Volunteer Emergency Service (VES) in 2016 It has just over 1,000 volunteers as of 2019. The State Emergency Service (SES) is a volunteer service with the role of attending a vast array of

natural disasters A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econo ...

and

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

incidents. They attend land searches for missing people, storm damage,

urban search and rescue Urban search and rescue (abbreviated as USAR or US&R) is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natu ...

(USAR), cliff rescue, road crash rescue, transporting personnel and equipment to fires as well as many other roles. The SES has a K9 unit with volunteer's dogs being trained in searching for missing people and a mounted unit for land searches. As of 2019 they had 1,839 volunteers. The Volunteer Marine Rescue Service (VMRS) is another volunteer service tasked with assisting the

Western Australian Police The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia, an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction, with a population ...

with searches for missing people or vessels, assisting disabled vessels and rescues in water around the state. As of 2019 there are 39 VMRS Groups with 1,752 volunteers. In April 2018 a new Rural Fire Division was announced after the findings of the 2016 Waroona Bushfire Special Inquiry. It will be another branch under the DFES structure and will consist of: * Bushfire Centre of Excellence (training and research into Bushfire mitigation) * Bushfire Risk Management Planning * Bushfire Technical Services * Land Use Planning * Office of Bushfire Risk Management

Stations

Metropolitan Career fire stations

* Armadale * Belmont (new station opened 3 November 2005, old station 1974–2005) * Butler * Byford (Commencing in 2022) * Canning Vale * Claremont * Cockburn (Opened Jan 2021, replaced Success) * Daglish * Duncraig * Ellenbrook * Fremantle * Hope Valley (opened 2 November 2005) * Joondalup * Kensington (new station expected operational in April 2021, old station 1973–2021) * Kiara * Maddington * Malaga * Mandurah * Midland * Murdoch * Osborne Park * Perth (The original station, closed in 1979, operates as a museum.) * Rockingham * Success (Station Closed, replaced by Cockburn in January 2021) * Vincent – Opened in May 2018. * Wangara * Welshpool

Country Career fire stations

* Geraldton * Kalgoorlie * Albany * Bunbury

Vehicles and equipment

The Department maintains and coordinates a range of specialist equipment and emergency response vehicles. This includes

pumpers A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an i ...

and

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

aerial ladder A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an ...

s and other equipment designed to combat incidents including

(USAR),

firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typically ...

and other natural disasters. Appliances used by DFES brigades groups and units include:

BFS/VFES/VFRS/CFRS vehicles

* Light Tanker (

Toyota Landcruiser 70 Series The 70 Series is a family of Toyota Land Cruiser models produced since 1984. It replaced the 25-year-old Toyota FJ40, 40 Series as the off-road model of the Land Cruiser lineup, while the contemporary 60 Series developed into more comfortable Lu ...

V8 single cab ute with a diesel pump and water capacity of approximately 550L) * 1.4R (Rural) * 2.4B (Broadacre) / 2.4R * 3.4U (Urban) * 4.4B / 4.4R * 12.2 Bulk Water Tanker * Incident Control Vehicle (ICV) * Combination Ladder Platform (CLP) * Urban Pump * Urban Pump Type 2 (Previously Country Pump) * Urban Pump Type 3 (Previously HSR. A 4x4 offroad capable appliance designed to combat HAZMAT incidents, structure fires and rescue operations) * Vertical Rescue Vehicle

SES/VFES Vehicles

* Personnel Carrier (

V8 Troop Carrier used to transport personnel and equipment to incidents) * General Rescue (GR) Truck ( Isuzu NPS 75-155/

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

75-190 used to transport rescue/communications equipment to incidents) * 12 Seater Bus * Road Crash Rescue Tender (Same platform as GR Truck) * Flood Rescue Boat

Aerial Suppression and Fire Mapping

DFES utilises a range of

water bombing Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...

and surveillance aircraft on loan from various companies and in collaboration with The

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

(DBCA) Parks and Wildlife Service. During the 2019/2020 Fire season, these include: *

Bell 214 The Bell 214 is a medium-lift helicopter derived from Bell Helicopter's ubiquitous UH-1 Huey series. The Bell 214ST shares the same model number, but is a larger, much-modified twin-engine derivative. Design and development The original deve ...

B Helitaks with a 2700L capacity *

Sikorsky S-64 The Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane is an American twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter. It is the civil version of the United States Army's CH-54 Tarhe. It is currently produced as the S-64 Aircrane by Erickson Inc. Development Under Sikorsky Th ...

Erickson Skycrane with a 7000L Capacity * Air Tractor 802 with a capacity of 3100L (operated by DBCA Parks and Wildlife Service) * Eurocopter AS355 Écureuil (Air attack supervision and fire mapping) *

Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin The Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) AS365 Dauphin (''Dolphin''), also formerly known as the Aérospatiale SA 365 Dauphin 2, is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter produced by Airbus Helicopters. It was originally developed ...

(Utility, air attack supervision and fire mapping, capacity for water bombing with 1200L bucket) *

MD-87 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gener ...

(Large Air Tanker based at RAAF Pearce) *
File:DFES Karlgoorlie Urban Pumper.jpg, Scania Urban Pumper File:DFES - CLP04.jpg, Combination Ladder Platform File:DFES Incident Control Vehicle - 01.jpg, Incident Control Vehicle File:DFES Hazmat Specialist Response.jpg, Hazmat Structure Rescue File:DFES - POD Carrier SM04.jpg, POD Carrier File:DFES - Wallcliffe 3.4U Dual Cab.jpg, 3.4 Urban Tanker File:DFES Wanneroo Light Tanker.jpg, Bush Fire Service Light tanker File:DFES - Dunsborough 4.4 Rural.jpg, Bush Fire Service Isuzu 4.4 rural tanker File:DFES - Horrocks Dual Cab 1.4R.jpg, Bush Fire Service Isuzu 1.4 rural tanker File:DFES - Murray 12.2.jpg, Bush Fire Service Isuzu 12.2 bulk tanker File:HelitankerToodyay December 2009.jpg, Sikorsky S61 Helitak at Toodyay Oval File:Sikorsky S-64 Aircrane Erickson Inc. Water bomber Mount Solus PHS039 XI-2015.JPG, Sikorsky S-64 Aircrane Erickson water bomber Vehicles are named based on their water capacity, drive type (2x4/4x4) and role. For example: 1.4R meaning approximately 1000L, 4x4 and designed for a rural environment.

Publications

DFES publishes ''24seven'', a magazine.

References

{{Authority control Emergency services in Western Australia

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

Fire and rescue services of Australia 2012 establishments in Australia Government agencies established in 2012