Mortdale residents see red over their fire station woes

They are asking why the state government was using stealth and neglect to close down the station at a time when the federal government was increasing national security against the threat of terrorist activity.

Mr Robertson said this was a contradiction as firefighters were a primary response in an emergency.

‘‘This is a legitimate issue to raise — if the situation is serious enough to raise the terror threat level  from medium to high, the government should be serious enough to keep fire stations fully operational,’’ Mr Robertson said.

He said that because of staff freezes that began almost two years ago, the station was closed about half the month and nearby stations, Hurstville and Riverwood, were closed one day a week on average.

‘‘The Liberals have left community safety hanging in the balance as Mortdale joins other stations across Sydney that are closed routinely because the government refuses to replace firefighters who call in sick or are on leave,’’ Mr Robertson said.

‘‘Fires are a danger at all times of the day and people should expect to have the appropriate level of safety provided. Our firefighters do the best they can but the government is refusing to give them the support they need.’’

Mr Robertson said the station had a freeze on recruitment although only 13 of 20 authorised positions were filled; if one staff member was on leave, only 11 positions were filled.

Ms Smith said more than 1500 concerned residents had signed a petition calling on the government to fill the authorised positions.

‘‘As a nurse, I know how important it is to have frontline staff fully supported and positions filled,’’ she said.

‘‘For our firefighters to be let down so badly by the Liberal government is an outrage.

‘‘The freeze on recruitment must be lifted as a matter of urgency but as the Liberals have ignored the issue for almost two years now, residents are worried the real plan is to close Mortdale fire station  permanently.’’

Hurstville councillor Justin Mining who has worked hard to get the council to fight for the station, said it was absurd to have it understaffed and subject to regular temporary closures.

‘‘Twice in the past 18 months I have moved motions to highlight the absurdity of having our fire station at the mercy of closures.  Just last month, one of these motions was supported unanimously by councillors from all political parties.’’

‘TEMPORARILY OFFLINE’

A spokeswoman for Fire and Rescue NSW said Mortdale fire station was crewed by ‘‘retained’’ (on-call), not full-time, firefighters.

She said the station was sometimes taken offline temporarily if there were insufficient numbers of retained firefighters available. This arrangement, agreed to as part of negotiations which secured a pay rise for firefighters, had been in place since 2008.

‘‘Claims that the safety of the Mortdale community is being put at risk because the station is sometimes temporarily offline are completely untrue,’’ she said.

‘‘Full-time firefighters and fire engines from nearby fire stations at Hurstville [3.1 kilometres away] and Riverwood [4.1 kilometres] often arrive at incidents in Mortdale before the local retained firefighters, as they do not have to travel to the fire station from their homes and work — they are alerted and respond instantly.’’

The spokeswoman said the retained firefighters were on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week but sometimes, due to work and family commitments, there were insufficient firefighters available  – a minimum crew of four was required.

‘‘Unfortunately, this is a problem that affects many retained fire stations across the state – it is a matter of demographics and changing social trends, not sick leave,’’ she said.

‘‘Sick leave is rarely the issue.’’

Should Mortdale fire station be fully operational?