Members will have seen a copy of the new notice of industrial action to take effect from 5 October (Newsletter to Members No 37 – Industrial Action). One significant change is the action that Comcentre members will take in regards to “a ban on processing fire systems inoperative event notifications.”

What this effectively means is notifications of sprinklered buildings which may be having maintenance on the system or a shut down will no longer be processed. Therefore, when a PFA call is received in the Comcentre, and because there is no knowledge of the building or the sprinkler system status, the Comcentre will do one of the following activities:

The sprinkler investigation response will immediately be upgraded by the Shift Manager to a first alarm turnout in the absence of information detailing the status of the system; or

The Comcen Dispatcher will advise the first responding appliance per RT that “we have no information on the status of the sprinklers in the building – confirm you require a first alarm response turned out?”

Our members in the Comcentre will be undertaking this action to ensure the safety of firefighters on the fire ground is maintained, given there is no information being recorded on the status of the building or its sprinkler system. This will also help maintain the safety of members of the public also.

To ensure that this occurs, dependant on the course of action the Comcentre takes, Officers will be required to advise in the affirmative when the Comcentre are requesting a first alarm response. The Union recommends that all Officers action the request from Comms for their own safety and protection given there is no current and updated building status available.