COMMISH’S CORNER

.Friday 13 July 2007 Number 417. NSWFB The Rumour Mill No (02) 9265 2627
CURRENT NATIONAL SECURITY ALERT LEVEL : MEDIUM

NSWFB Rescue Champions
Congratulations to S/O Clayton Allison, S/O Tony Waller, SF Dean Broadwood, QF Paul Hughes, QF John Styles and QF John Robertson who represented the NSWFB at the Australasian Rescue Challenge in Perth recently. The team finished third overall, with first place going to Curragh Mines Rescue (Qld) and second to Queensland Fire & Rescue - Toowoomba. In all, 20 teams from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore competed in three complex rescue simulations.

Legends retire
Two NSWFB 'legends' are retiring over the next week. Chief Superintendent Roger Bucholtz AFSM, Area Commander Metro East, will hang up his helmet next week after a distinguished 41 year career, and I will miss his enthusiasm, wisdom and cool competence. Last night numerous friends farewelled Inspector Bill Powell AFSM, who has been a nationally renowned and respected Fire Investigator for the last 16 years.

Letter of thanks from the SES
This week I received a letter of sincere thanks from Brigadier Philip McNamara, Director General of the SES, thanking all personnel who were involved in the response and recovery operations during last month's devastating storms in the Hunter and Central Coast areas. I saw first hand the devastation in the region and was proud of the work carried out by firefighters and support staff, all of whom really went the extra mile. Well done to all, and thank you.

Hazmat incident - Kooragang Island shipping terminal
On Wednesday, the NSWFB was again on hand to help the people of Newcastle, preventing a potential disaster after hydraulic fluid from a crane on board a ship leaked into a hull that contained around 350 bags of ammonium nitrate weighing 1.2 tonnes each. Crews from the Newcastle area worked closely with the NSWFB scientific advisor, hazmat specialists, personnel from the shipping company and the Port Authority to bring the incident to a speedy and safe conclusion. It was a great team effort. In 1947 Texas City in the USA was devastated by an explosion aboard a ship carrying ammonium nitrate. Follow the link to read about that incident.

Broadband roll out
The rollout of broadband to Regional Fire Stations across the state will begin this month. NSWFB IT is committed to the continuous improvement of infrastructureStations will start to receive throughout the organisation. As part of this improvement, Regional Fire Stations will start to receive their 512/128k ADSL broadband connection from the 23rd July, with most stations connected by year-end. This is an important improvement to infrastructure which will provide regional firefighters with much faster access to web based computer applications. The rollout to the gSa metropolitan stations was a great success and we expect the regional rollout to be an equally smooth transition from Satellite to Broadband. All Broadband technicians will provide a letter of introduction to the Station Officers/Captains on arrival. A schedule of the rollout is now available on the intranet under the OIS section. Whenever I visit country stations, the slowness of computers is raised as a major issue. My thanks to Director IT Richard Host and his team who applied their minds to finding a solution.

Station visits and 'Emu's' send off
Last Friday was a busy day, with visits to crews at six fire stations in the Blue Mountains and Central West, as well as a visit to 361 Leura to look at the nearly completed renovations. The 'lightning visits' were at 102 Regentville, 343 Katoomba, 363 Lithgow, 216 Bathurst, 412 Orange and 280 Dubbo. That night I had the pleasure of paying tribute to Station Officer Bill 'Emu' Clifford AFSM at his Dubbo retirement function.

Inspector Promotions
Congratulations to Stuart Mitchell and Kim Simpson who were promoted to the rank of Inspector last Friday. I wish them well in their new positions. For further information see the intranet story.

Brigade Automatic Retained Time sheet system (BART)
It's all systems go with the rollout of the new Brigade Automatic Retained Timesheet (BART) system beginning this month. The system went live on 11 July at Mortdale and Rhodes fire stations. A further 63 fire stations are scheduled to undergo BART training this month in time for them to be using the new system by 1 August. BART, which replaces the old paper based time sheet, is an easier and more timely way for Retained Firefighters to lodge their work hours and also allows them to view previously submitted timesheets through the system. Zone management and staff will also undertake the BART training in the near future. The training will be delivered by Zone IT Trainers and IT Trainers, as well as Insp Bob McGowan and SF Andrew Grimwood from OIS. The training schedule is available on the Intranet. For more details contact Andrew Grimwood via your Captain.

Improving AIRS reporting
Accuracy of the information entered into AIRS incident reports is crucial for planning and is used in the annual report, by other government departments, insurance companies, fire alarm monitoring companies and others needing information on fires and the NSWFB. Incident information should be expressed clearly and should include an easy to read description of incident details. In particular with automatic fire alarms (AFAs) it's important to remember that further details should be entered into the 'Description of Incident' field which is found on all reports. For example, if an AFA (false alarms in particular) involves a specific unit in a block, details should be entered. Likewise, if there are several buildings or factory units involved in a fire, information identifying each premises is beneficial to allow business managers and body corporates to apportion costs accordingly.

Fire Ed champions
It's important we continue to get the key fire safety messages out to primary school children in NSW. With winter being the most dangerous times for fires in the home, I encourage all stations to be active with Fire Ed and make contact with the primary schools in your local area. The new term starts on 17 July so it's a good time to lock in a date for a Fire Ed session before the end of the year. It always makes me proud to hear about or read Fire Ed success stories and other community education initiatives being undertaken by stations across NSW.

Triple Zero phone stickers
A great NSWFB initiative has been endorsed by the national regulator of Triple Zero. Thanks to the work of Chief Superintendent Mark Whybro and his team at Operational Communications, we may soon see a Triple Zero sticker placed on every phone in Australia. There is more work to be done in organising the funding and getting all the other emergency services agencies to support the initiative but the first step - approval - has been achieved. Also to be explored as part of this process is the possibility of Triple Zero bumper stickers - so watch this space! For more information about the NSWFB's involvement in raising awareness about Triple Zero through government and industry channels see the intranet story.

NSWFB donates 12 Oxy-Vivas to Thai surf lifesaving project
Last week the NSWFB donated 12 redundant Oxy-Vivas to the Avoca Beach Surf Lifesaving Club to assist with the establishment of a surf life saving club in Thailand. This week a team of 12 volunteers flew to Thailand to work with Thai Marine Police, lifeguards, school children, tour operators and the wider community to introduce surf awareness and the culture of surf life saving. For further information see the intranet story.

Variety Bash - Base to (HMAS) Bathurst
From 5-17 August, the NSW Fire Brigades and the NSW Rural Fire Service will be participating in the 2007 NSW Variety Bash Base (Garden Island, Sydney) to Bathurst (HMAS Bathurst Darwin). Both services are supplying support vehicles to Variety to undertake official duties as part of the Variety Bash management structure. Three more cars, crewed by members of both the NSWFB and the RFS, will be participating in the Bash. This event provides us with a unique opportunity to promote community safety initiatives in remote and isolated communities, and as such NSWFB and RFS personnel participating in the Bash will be undertaking community safety initiatives and education along the Bash route in towns such as Dubbo, Haddon Rigg and Brewarrina. The NSWFB and RFS will also be working in conjunction with the Queensland and Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Services in towns such as Longreach, Burketown and Borroloola.

Fire Australia articles
The Winter edition of the Australasian Fire Authorities Council's (AFAC) quarterly magazine, Fire Australia, contains two articles about the NSW Fire Brigades. There is a four page story on the Cootamundra silo fire, which helped the NSWFB further refine pre-incident planning for complex incidents and review standard operational guidelines for silos and other specialised incidents. There is also a three-page story on the NSWFB's pioneering of the Community Fire Unit program to raise awareness about bushfires and build an army of volunteers along the urban/bushland interface to assist firefighters. PDFs of the articles can be found on the intranet and a copy of Fire Australia will be available shortly in the Library. If you have any story suggestions for future editions of the AFAC magazine or other industry publications please contact the NSWFB's Public Affairs and Communications Strategy Unit on 9265 2907.

2007 City 2 Surf
The 2007 City 2 Surf is on 12 August. The competition for the John Host Memorial Shield will be on again this year with the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade preparing to send a strong and determined team to win the shield back from the NSWFB. For further information about competing in the NSWFB team see the intranet story or contact Inspector Ron Sinclair on 0417 549 546.

RUMOUR MILL
Rumour:
Is it true that off-duty retained firefighters will be paid for the time taken to receive a chest x-ray and doctor's consultation but an off-duty permanent firefighter will not?

Response: It was agreed that permanent firefighters would attend the Dust Diseases Board - Asbestos Screening Lung Bus, whilst on duty. Arrangements are continually being made to locate the lung bus at stations where other nearby stations and crews can attend, whilst on duty. In other words, permanent firefighters are being paid whilst attending the screening. Permanent firefighters who elect to attend either the DDB Head Office for screening, or a lung bus location for screening, while off duty, will not be paid. Retained firefighters- kilometres and hourly rate costs are paid when attending the location of the lung bus (located within their Zone or Region), which is fair and reasonable given that screening of permanent firefighters has been arranged during work (paid) time.

Rumour: Is it true that now 66 Rhodes has a new type 2 appliance they are finally going to build a fire station?

Response: At this time there is no plan to construct a new fire station for 66 Rhodes

INCIDENTS
NSWFB assists with the retrieval of 60 cars illegally dumped in the Georges River
Family loses everything in Kurri Kurri house fire
Hay rocked by early morning explosion
Deliberately lit fires in Bradbury

EVENTS
Farewell to the Emu
A Platoon reunion a success
APEC update and Precinct Commander training
Waterways boom drill and evaluation

COMMISH’S CORNER
Commissioner’s e-mail: Commissioner@fire.nsw.gov.au
Cora Sarmiento, Commish’s PA: 9265 2930
PACSU: fax 9265 2882
Commish’s Corner Rumour Mill: 9265 2627
To contribute a story to the intranet, please contact Public Affairs Officers: (West) 9265 2613, (South) 9265 2802 or (North) 9265 2631