Country Fire Service

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:48): I rise to speak about the Country Fire Service, an organisation I am sure all South Australians are particularly grateful for and proud of following the catastrophic bushfire conditions our state experienced last week and, of course, on several other occasions. Last week in particular, the fires ravaged parts of Yorke Peninsula, Eyre Peninsula, the Barossa Valley and the Mid North.

On Wednesday, the CFS battled over 45 fires across South Australia and although, unfortunately, a number of properties were damaged or destroyed, along with the loss of livestock and crops, the situation could have been much worse had it not been for the courageous efforts of our volunteer firefighters. Their willingness to risk their lives by placing themselves in direct danger in order to protect others in our community is nothing short of extraordinary.

The CFS is a community-based organisation which delivers professional fire and rescue services to outer metropolitan, regional and rural South Australia, where it responds to bush, grass, building and motor vehicle fires, as well as road crashes and hazardous materials spills. It currently comprises some 13,500 volunteers operating from 425 brigades across the state, with a fleet of over 800 fire trucks.

The CFS volunteers dedicate in excess of three million hours to contributing to the safety and resilience of our community each and every year and attend approximately 8,000 incidents. It works alongside the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, of course, and the State Emergency Service during a range of events and closely collaborates with local government to assist with strategies to educate the community about bushfires and to provide fire safety.

For those members who are unfamiliar with the history of the CFS, it is interesting to have a look at it—and I will take a few moments to briefly touch on some of it here. Its current operations evolved from a long and complex partnership between volunteers, local government and the state government over many years to meet community safety needs. In colonial times, the government's focus was on the control of wildfire through legislating against the careless use of fire. Firefighting in that period was left to local residents, who would band together to fight fires as they arose, without any formal organisation or authority to support their efforts.

In 1913, the government gave councils the right to appoint fire control officers, who had the power to undertake whatever was necessary, expedient and practical to prevent fires, protect life and protect property. After the Second World War, technological advancements that resulted in the use of radios, telephones and motor transport revolutionised rural firefighting, and residents began to form local or district firefighting associates. Eventually, the state government established and equipped volunteer Emergency Fire Service (EFS) brigades in metropolitan Adelaide, followed by various country areas.

From the mid-1950s, these organisations grew stronger and volunteers began to campaign for the EFS to be established as a statutory authority. In 1976, the state government passed the Country Fires Act, which set up the SA Country Fire Service (CFS) and, further, in 1989 it revised the SA Country Fires Act and regulations to enable the development of a standardised service that could respond swiftly to emergencies across the state rather than individually run local service centres.

The SA Fire and Emergency Services Act is of course now the governing legislation for the CFS. As is the case with all our incredibly remarkable emergency service agencies, the CFS fulfils a critical role in protecting our rural and regional communities and, indeed, major centres and fulfils a critical role in protecting those communities and areas from many forms of devastation and disaster.

I take this opportunity to wholeheartedly commend all those who are involved in the organisation's crucial functions for their time, energy and fortitude as they confront some of the most challenging, extreme and even life-threatening predicaments on our behalf. I understand some of the CFS's volunteers needed to be treated for smoke inhalation and heat stress this past week and certainly my thoughts and best wishes go out to them, as well as to all South Australians who were affected by the recent tragic fires.