A FORMER Eurobodalla Rural Fire Service (RFS) group captain fears the service may not have enough firefighters to cope with a serious bushfire emergency caused by the predicted mega El Nino weather cycle.
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Peter Gowen was Eurobodalla’s north group captain for 31 years and dealt with five major fires in that time.
He fears that there is not enough personnel in the Eurobodalla brigades to cope with an El Nino-fuelled nightmare.
It comes after University of Technology Sydney’s Brent Jacobs predicted that the Eurobodalla could be in for a catastrophic fire season due to a predicted mega El Nino weather cycle.
“The talk about El Nino is a worry, and the problem is the acute lack of numbers of volunteers,” Mr Gowen said.
“We have about 400 members in the three Eurobodalla groups and at the time of the 1994 bushfires we had 1040.
“In the past 10 years we have lost a lot of experienced firefighters.
“We have a lot better equipment now, but not as many volunteers with fire-fighting sense.”
He believes this is reflected state-wide.
“The government and the RFS say that there are 70,000 volunteers, but a lot of people feel there is about 23,000,” he said.
“A lot of people on the books of fire brigades aren’t active members, and as fire fighting is pretty savage work, many of those that are active can’t do it.”
Mr Gowen, who is a life member of Malua Bay RFS, said one aspect of bushfire response had improved, but it was also dependent on other factors.
“In the past when a big fire got out of control it would be declared a Section 44, and then extra resources could be allocated to it,” he said.
“Now if the conditions are right for such a fire then the Section 44 can be declared pre-emptively, so resources can be brought in.
“Unfortunately if these conditions are in one place, then they are probably in another, and resources have to be spread out.”
