Vandals have gone on a night-time rampage at Engadine Rural Fire Bridge, attacking the facility with graffiti.
Photos posted on the brigade’s Facebook page show several areas of the main building sprayed.
“Members arrived this morning to be greeted with our station (the communities station) covered in graffiti after only having been recently repainted wonderfully by our extremely supportive Sutherland Shire Council,” it stated.
“With the driest conditions seen in years, off the back of an extremely busy fire season and the day after our earliest total fire ban in history, this is not what anyone needs to be greeted with.
“To say we are disappointed is an understatement. We take pride in these facilities and all our equipment and have done since the stations completion. So to see it covered like this is heartbreaking for all those who give up their time for free to serve the community.”
It is believed the attack occurred during the night.
Sutherland Shire Rural Fire Service (RFS) district manager Superintendent Andrew Pinfold says it is an attack not only on the building but on its dedicated firefighters.
“It’s absolutely disgusting and abhorrent that a facility not only for our firefighters but for our community has been vandalised,” he said.
“Our members take absolutely pride in their facilities and they’re incredibly well maintained. To have someone or persons come along and attack it in such a way is just wrong, especially as just only with yesterday’s fire, firefighters are giving up their time.
“What this also does is affect costs associated with a clean-up. Our budget for this is only a certain figure so we end up having to reallocate funding where it could be used for some other requirement such as firefighting equipment.”
Superintendent Pinfold says some but not all stations had CCTV. He encourages anyone with information to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
“Should anyone have any footage of suspicious activity in the area, dashcam footage, or anything that may assist police in identifying who committed this act,” he said.
Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000
