BUSHFIRE —
GNANGARA — PERSONNEL ALLOCATION
90. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the
Minister for Emergency Services:
I refer to a fire incident in
Gnangara, in the north of Perth, on 9 November 2019.
(1) Did career
firefighters refuse to take instruction from a qualified sector commander
because he was a volunteer at the fire on that date?
(2) If yes to
(1), was the reason given for the refusal that this was a directive of the
United Firefighters Union?
(3) If yes to (1), will the minister
supply details of the incident to Parliament?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by
the Minister for Emergency Services.
(1)–(3) On
9 November 2019, a bushfire occurred within the gazetted fire district in the
suburb of Gnangara—DFES incident 458032. During the incident, concerns
were raised with the operations officer regarding the allocation of career and
volunteer personnel across sectors. The issue was resolved in the course of
reallocating resources across the fireground.