FIRE STATION “PROMISE" UP IN SMOKE BURDEKIN’S WAIT FOR 24-HOUR COVERAGE GOES ON

Two local auxiliary firefighters make their stance clear outside Ayr Fire and Rescue’s soon to be replaced Soper Street station. Photo credit: Jacob Casha.

‍

By Jacob Casha

‍

When Queensland Fire Department (QFD) officials signed off on 24-hour station designs for Ayr in January, local firefighters thought their years of advocacy and sacrifice had finally paid dividends.

Those plans went up in smoke when the Department instead decided to retain current staffing models in the district, leaving after-hours response on the shoulders of burnt-out permanent officers and an auxiliary workforce that is evaporating by the year.

“It's sickening,” Queensland Professional Fire Fighters Union Townsville Country Branch Secretary Peter Marten said.

“The community is not aware that if a fire happened tonight, or someone was trapped in a car tonight, they might have to wait 40 minutes for the first fire truck to turn up.

“I just don't understand how [the Department] could be willing to take that risk.”

‍

CHANGE OF PLAN LEAVES BURDEKIN FIRE COVERAGE UNRESOLVED

‍

Queensland Professional Firefighters Union (QPFU) officials have slammed the Queensland Fire Department’s decision to abandon plans for a long-awaited 24-hour fire station in Ayr.

The decision goes against years of advocacy from the Union, which raised concerns that all-time lows in auxiliary numbers have made the current mixed staffing model in Ayr unsustainable and dangerous.

‍

Ayr Fire and Rescue (AFR) representatives were informed of the Department's decision just months after then QFD Assistant Commissioner for the Northern Region, Michael O’Neil, signed off on designs for an FS6 station—a 24/7 permanently staffed facility—to replace its current Soper Street facility.

‍

Union representatives said Mr O’Neil’s signature followed 10 months of consultation between the Department and AFR, during which QFD Deputy Commissioner at the time, Kevin Walsh, also reportedly pledged to submit FS6 station plans with increased staff to upcoming estimates.

At the estimates last month, Mr Walsh and QFR Commissioner Steve Smith instead revealed that while the new station will still be built, it will operate under an FS4 daytime-only staffing model, deeming current arrangements sufficient for service delivery in the region.

‍

“We look at a whole range of factors such as … demographics, urban sprawl, frequency of responses, types of responses and response times,” said Mr Walsh.

‍

“Through that process, it was determined that an FS4 station matches the current service delivery … [with the] capacity for future expansion should the operational service change over time.”

Union officials argued the department’s assessment ignored severe operational realities on the ground, pointing to a collapsing auxiliary workforce and dangerous after-hours response delays.

‍

The station currently pairs rostered daytime permanent staff with on-call auxiliaries for overnight coverage, making it the only emergency service in the Burdekin without a 24/7 operation.

‍

QPFU Townsville Country Branch Secretary Peter Marten said permanent firefighters had been hiding the system’s blemishes for years, with permanent AFR firefighters forced to go on-call after hours to make up for a depleted auxiliary workforce.

‍

“For years, a broken system has been propped up by a permanent workforce who have very clearly told [the Department] that it cannot continue,” he said.

“They're not only covering Ayr now; they cover Giru, and they also had to start covering Home Hill … and a large group of them have become burnt out.”

‍

‍

‍

Mr Marten said the new station in Ayr, funded through the 2025/26 State Budget, was an opportunity for a clean slate.

“There is an opportunity with the new station to fix the problem going forward, but they’ve turned a blind eye to it,” he said.

‍

“If it's not going to happen now, it's probably not going to happen for quite a few years—and and the auxiliary models are going to be broken for all those years. Sooner or later, someone's going to get seriously hurt because of that.”

‍

Mr Marten said the permanent staff are now off-call following the Department’s decision, leaving after-hours response solely down to eight active auxiliary firefighters across the entire Burdekin shire.

‍

Auxiliary Captain Noel Mulcahy said Ayr’s roster alone had plummeted from 14 active members to four over roughly 20 years, three of whom are not qualified to operate pump equipment due to ‘Grade 1’ status.

As a result, Mr Mulcahy said after-hours calls without permanent assistance can face over 30-minute delays waiting for backup from Home Hill, or up to an hour when appliances must be dispatched from Townsville. He called the delay a matter of “life or death.”

‍

He also said low numbers have halted interior search-and-rescue operations altogether.

‍

“If we attended a structure fire and there were people reported inside, I wouldn't commit a crew to go in for search-and-rescue—I haven't got the numbers to go in and save them if something happens,” he said.

‍

“I don't want to stand in front of a coroner and try to explain why I sent them in with no back-up.”

A QFD spokesperson acknowledged the drop in auxiliary numbers, but defended the FS4 decision in a statement, arguing that infrastructure planning is informed by current and future demand.

‍

The Department did not directly respond to questions about what documents Mr O’Neil signed in January, what authority that sign-off carried, or what occurred between the approval of the FS6 designs and the subsequent decision to proceed with an FS4 station.

The spokesperson did reveal that Queensland Fire and Rescue had “undertaken targeted local auxiliary recruitment activities over the past 18 months to support continued service delivery in the area.”

‍

However, AFR statistics show a local 18-month drive launched in 2023 yielded nine applicants,  one of whom remains in the role today. Union members cited the ultimately unsuccessful drive as proof that a 24/7 station was the last remaining option.

‍

Burdekin Shire Council Mayor Pierina Dalle Cort said the region deserves “nothing less.”

“My issue is the fact that it’s been promised, and that 90 per cent of our community would not even realise that, at the present time, we don’t even have a 24/7 manned fire station in the district,” she said.

‍

“Considering the size of our district and our population, having [a new station] built that is lesser than what we have is unacceptable.”

‍