Critical CFS support services in the Adelaide Hills and Southern Fleurieu have been boosted with two new operational support brigades established across the region.
The Sturt and Southern Fleurieu Operational Support brigades will play a vital back-of-house role for all incidents – providing a wide range of support to ground crews as they respond to bushfires and other emergencies.
Operational Support members' roles include communications, logistics, operations, catering and peer and family support – enabling volunteers to serve their communities, even when they are unable or do not wish to be frontline firefighters.
The two new brigades are the first of their kind to be formed since 2016 and comprise 22 Operational Support brigades around the state.
The last Operational Support brigade to be established in South Australia was eight years ago at Para Reserve following the devastating Sampson Flat bushfires.
The Sturt Operational Support brigade – part of the Sturt Group – covers areas including Belair, Blackwood, Cherry Gardens, Coromandel Valley and Eden Hills, with training held at Belair and Cherry Gardens stations.
The Southern Fleurieu Operational Support brigade – part of the Southern Fleurieu Group – covers areas including Cape Jervis, Hay Flat, Inman Valley, Myponga, Parawa, Rapid Bay and Yankalilla, which is where the brigade is based.
Both brigades will support up to 20 volunteers and have been formed after extensive consultation with CFS staff and volunteers, community groups and Government agencies to increase services in areas of growing need.
Anyone interested in joining is encouraged to head to the CFS volunteers page, with final placements expected to be filled by September.
There are now 427 SA Country Fire Service brigades representing 13,500 volunteers in six regions across the state.
As put by Dan Cregan
CFS volunteers are committed to serving their communities in many ways and in different roles.
These new brigades will provide vital support to frontline crews, helping them respond to bushfires and other emergencies in growing areas of the state.
Operational Support members are valued additions to the CFS' response and demonstrate how volunteers with diverse skills and abilities can continue to assist.
As put by Catherine Hutchesson
Our CFS volunteers do an incredible job at keeping us safe in an ever-changing environment. Sturt group has a committed Operational Support group and recognising them as their own brigade goes a long way to acknowledging the work that they do.
Whether it is communications, logistics, operations, or ensuring our crews have what they need, the work that they do is incredibly important.
I am very pleased that our Belair Operations Support volunteers will form this new brigade and I encourage locals who would like to be involved in protecting our community but might not want to be on the frontline, to think about whether joining an Operational Support brigade might be something that suits them.
As we navigate the storm season and head toward another fire season, I'd like to thank all of our CFS volunteers for always being there when our community needs them.
As put by Leon Bignell
The local men and women who volunteer across the emergency services sector deserve all the support they can get from the community and various levels of government.
This is terrific news for those volunteers and the communities they will be helping protect.
As put by CFS Regional Commander Michael Bohrnsen
We know there are increased fire risks and hazards in the Adelaide Hills and beyond and given there's a growing population in these peri-urban areas, it's really important we bring in these additional support services.
The brigades will consist of volunteers who will be professionally trained to provide radio communications, logistics and other key requirements for ground crews to tackle and get on top of future incidents.
As put by CFS Sturt Group logistics support coordinator Owen Lucas
Members of the new Sturt Group brigade will be rostered on-call with a kit bag of radios, a tablet and trained with the skills they need to support the 200 plus calls a year that local brigades respond to.
The formation of a new brigade is an exciting opportunity for recruitment and retention of operational support members which in turn improves the services preparedness for all emergencies including bushfires.
