Tasmania Fire Service
Communications assistance to Incident Management Teams
2006 Kellevie activation
2008 Initial TFS training
2006 Kellevie VK7FDNA
2010 - TFS Cambridge workshops museum truck - VK7CDW at the wheel
2010 - Wayatinah - VK7MRS
2010 - Wayatinah - VK7TPE
2010 - Wayatinah - VK7HSE, CL
2012 Meadowbank VK7ARN
2012 Meadowbank fires - VK7NXX, ARN
2012 Meadowbank fires - VK7TPE, CDW
2013 Dunalley - VK7HW, HSB
2013 VK7ARN
2013 Dunally - VK7CL, HW
Fireground map
Follow up TFS training
2013 TFS VK7RT, ST
Last call from TFS in 2013
Amateur Radio involvement with the Tas Fire Service ended after the release of the 2013 Tasmanian Bushfires Inquiry Report. An issue raised to the inquiry resulted in the inclusion of
• only qualified staff should be used in the communications area for call-taking and dispatch
During the inquiry, comments were made concerning delayed responses to radio calls from the fireground to the IMT. In fact, 99% of calls were answered promptly by the operators (I was there or listening from elsewhere), who immediately followed protocols by recording the message and passing it to the duty officers. In life and death situations e.g. when permission was sought to lift, in a water bucket, the pilot of a downed helicopter which was being encroached by fire, the operator immediately broke into a meeting to get the Commander to the radio. (The downed pilot had already been lifted when the Commander got to the radio!) In other situations, the protocol called for messages to be placed in a basket, which was checked from time to time. I cannot help but wonder if the Amateur operators were used as a scapegoat for a system considered inadequate by some.