Page 3614 - Week 11 - Thursday, 16 November 2006
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provision of CAFS tankers. When I was fortunate enough to be the minister responsible, he actually congratulated us on that. He has had a total memory lapse here.
These vehicles were the first of their kind in Australia with the advantage of utilising less water and having a faster extinguishing time which, when translated, means four to five times greater effectiveness compared with plain water alone. The brigade will shortly be commissioning a replacement hazardous materials, hazmat, vehicle which is larger than the existing one. And, of course, the government has funded this financial year a replacement aerial firefighting appliance to maintain the capability of the ACT Fire Brigade to respond to emergencies within high-rise buildings and high-density environments, at a cost of $1.45 million. For Mr Pratt’s benefit and your benefit, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the replacement aerial firefighting appliance is the Bronto.
The ACT Rural Fire Service has been able to purchase a wide range of new equipment to allow its volunteers to keep doing the great job that they do. That includes seven new CAFS tankers, which I referred to earlier, and 22 slip-on units distributed to rural lessees for use in fires on their properties, which was particularly well received by Captain Jeffreys. I remember presenting one of them and seeing the joy with which those things were received by the rural lessees. They have also received new personal and protective clothing items, such as boots, helmets, overalls, gloves and goggles.
Over the last two years the equipment levels in the ACT State Emergency Service have grown considerably as a result of continued investment in the emergency services by the government. This has provided the SES with far greater capabilities to undertake operations and has provided for new opportunities for volunteers. To highlight areas in which the government has invested in emergency services, the SES in particular, last year the SES received $95,000 in capital funding to modernise its response equipment, in line with its legislative responsibilities.
The funding was used earlier this year to purchase, for $25,000, a new flood rescue boat, doubling the flood rescue boat response capability of the SES. This flood rescue boat has already been put to good use in providing operational assistance to a range of public mass gathering activities on Lake Burley Griffin. It was used to purchase $45,000 worth of new storm damage response equipment for use by the volunteers. The equipment purchased includes new roof safety equipment, pumps, wet vacuums, hand tools and a range of safety equipment to provide the volunteers with equipment that is far more capable and reliable in providing emergency assistance to Canberra residents. An additional wet vacuum was also provided to the SES through fundraising by local NRMA insurance staff.
There was the purchase of a $7,000 storm damage trailer for the Tuggeranong unit to replace a 10-year-old trailer. The new trailer was custom designed and built in collaboration with volunteers and provides a far more functional and worker-safe platform to carry and from which to operate storm response equipment. There has also been the design and construction of a $15,000 pod to carry storm response equipment that has been fitted to an SES vehicle. This prototype vehicle is currently being
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