Politics & Council
23 August, 2023
Conflict resolution: chain of command training needed
LODDON Shire wants better induction programs for new CFA brigade captains working in a flood emergency. “Locally, there is no capacity in the SES to co-ordinate the response and therefore local response leadership was transferred to the CFA under...
LODDON Shire wants better induction programs for new CFA brigade captains working in a flood emergency.
“Locally, there is no capacity in the SES to co-ordinate the response and therefore local response leadership was transferred to the CFA under their joint arrangements,” it says in a submission to the Victorian Parliament flood inquiry.
“As a whole the local CFAs provided exemplary leadership during this event and in some cases to the detriment of their own personal impact and property damage.
“In some cases local CFA captains were not aware of the arrangements between the CFA and SES and were therefore unaware of their authority to act in consultation with the incident control centre.
“In some instances this lack of knowledge caused delays in them taking action and conflict with council.
“Council is in strong support of the arrangement between the CFA and SES whereby the CFA provides local response where the SES has no capacity and the SES provides co-ordination support from the Incident Control Centre.
“Council often found itself in the position of providing response type services without approval as the Incident Control Centre and management team became uncontactable.”