What we do
CFA has evolved from its informal beginnings in community- based fire brigades to become one of the world’s largest volunteer-based emergency service organisations.
We are wholly committed to the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery phases of emergency situations, providing a diverse range of risk reduction, fire suppression and incident management services to minimise the impact of fires and other emergencies on Victorian communities.
CFA provides statewide fire and related emergency coordination
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Wildfire suppression
- Structural fire suppression
- Transport-related fire suppression
- Road rescue
- Technical rescue, such as high angle, trench and mine operations
- Hazardous materials transportation and storage incidents
- Working with Forestry industry brigades
- Other emergency activities including flood assistance.
CFA is also involved in a range of non-emergency activities
- Community awareness, education and safety programs
- Technical services including building code-related inspections, post incident analysis and fire investigation
- Fire safety input planning for major community risks
- Fire prevention
- Land use planning advice at municipal level.
CFA incident response
During the 2009/10 financial year, CFA brigades responded to 34,779 incidents. Of these incidents:
- 4,053 were for structure fires
- 4,051 were for vegetation fires
- 3,108 were in relation to hazardous materials
- 3,799 were motor vehicle accidents, rescues and emergency medical services
- 6,902 were false alarms.
The State Control Centre is responsible for the coordination of resource allocation for the management of large and multiple incidents on a statewide basis.
CFA brigades are despatched via a computer-aided despatch system.
