From L-R: Chief Officer Jason Heffernan, Greendale Captain Brandon Lebehen, Gordon volunteer Roger Lowery, Gordon Captain Diane Lawson
Generous community donations from the 2019/20 bushfires will fund more than 200 breathing apparatus (BA) sets to CFA brigades across the state – some receiving the capability for the first time.
Thanks to the donations, the CFA and Brigades Donations Trust is allocating $2.25m to purchase this important equipment which improves our capability and protects the health and safety of our firefighters at incidents.
The overall project cost $2.75m, with some brigades choosing to co-fund the project, expanding the program by nearly 20%.
Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said the project funded one BA set and in some cases the brigade funded the second set.
“The additional funding support from brigades allowed us to extend the scope from 200 BA sets to a total of 234 BA sets and 468 BA cylinders,” he said.
“These are currently being delivered to 116 brigades across the state which will then be installed into their fire trucks.
“At the end of the rollout, 514 brigades will have BA with 43 of those brigades receiving the capability for the first time.
“BA provides important protection to our firefighters’ airways from harmful products at fires and other incidents,” he said.
“This is critically important for their wellbeing and safety and I thank the community for their generosity.”
Chair of the CFA and Brigades Donations Fund Graeme Jilbert said it’s great to see the community donations going towards such an important project which focuses on increasing the safety of our firefighters.
“The project also funds a newly developed BA cylinder exchange system which will improve operational efficiencies and save time for our volunteers,” he said.
The rollout of the new BA sets is expected to be complete in the next couple of months.
The 43 brigades receiving BA for the first time have already begun the training process and installation into the trucks.
From L-R: CFA & Brigades Donations Fund Chair Graeme Jilbert and Chief Officer Jason Heffernan-
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