Department of Fire and Emergency Services

The DFES was formerly known as the Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA), a statutory government authority created in January 1999 to administer the following legislation within the state of Western Australia:^[4]

The department was unaffected by the change in government following the 2017 Western Australian state elections.^[5]

The inaugural meeting of the Fire Brigades' Board was held on 16 January 1899. This later led to the establishment of the Western Australian Fire Brigades' Board in 1909. Western Australian Fire Brigades updated their name in 1995 to Fire and Rescue Service of Western Australia to more accurately reflect the service provided to the communities of Western Australia.^[6]

In 1999, the creation of FESA brought together the Fire and Rescue Service and the Bush Fire Service to form the Fire Services Division of FESA. The Fire and Rescue Service and Bush Fire Service actively maintain their original identities.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services was established in 2012 and replaced FESA. The first Fire and Emergency Commissioner Wayne Gregson was appointed. Wayne Gregson is a former Western Australia Police assistant commissioner. A new state of the art headquarters is located at Stockton Bend in Cockburn Central. This building includes the state and metropolitan operations centres, statewide communications centre, operations and capability commands and corporate services.

DFES operates under the Emergency Services Minister of the Government of Western Australia and is the Hazard Management Agency (HMA) for cyclones, floods, storms, tsunami, structural collapses, HAZMAT incidents, earthquakes and fires. Their operational branch comprises metropolitan and country operations, operations capability and oversees the listed services.

The Career Fire and Rescue Service of Western Australia (FRS or CFRS) consists of 1,249 paid firefighters working from 25 metropolitan stations and four country stations. Career firefighters attend a 21-week training course held at the academy in Forrestfield. They work on a roster of two 10-hour day shifts followed by two 14-hour night shifts and then four days off. Metropolitan stations operate with at least one urban pumper and light tanker, with a crew of one station officer and three firefighters. (Perth station does not run light tankers.)^[relevant?] Country stations operate with a crew of one station officer and five fire fighters.^[7] Some metropolitan stations operate as relieving stations^{[further explanation needed]} where two additional firefighters are on shift, these firefighters will fill short staffing at other stations if the need arises.

Appliance allocation is typically one urban pumper and one light tanker, with a second pump located at Perth, Vincent, Daglish, Fremantle, Welshpool and Bunbury. Two CLPs^{[expand acronym]} are located at Perth and Fremantle stations. Two SETs^{[expand acronym]} are located at Murdoch and Osborne Park. Four permanent Urban Tankers^{[further explanation needed]} are located at Joondalup, Malaga, Cardup and Canning Vale. With additional Urban Tankers brought online^{[colloquialism]} at Ellenbrook, Hope Valley, Midland, Welshpool and Maddington, during the high threat period. The ICV^{[expand acronym]} is located at Belmont Station, the POD carrier^{[expand acronym]} is also located at Canning Vale.

The Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) is a volunteer service predominantly attending motor vehicle accidents, structure fires and HAZMAT incidents outside of metropolitan areas. In 2024 the VFRS had 2,219 volunteer firefighters in 93 brigades across the state.^[8][9]

The Bush Fire Service (BFS) is a volunteer service tasked with^{[colloquialism]} attending any fire outside of a gazetted fire district within a Brigade's Local Government area. They predominantly combat bushfires and conduct hazard reduction burning on a local level. As of 2024^[update], there are 551 Bushfire Brigades (BFBs) with 20,227 volunteers.^[3]

The Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services (VFES) is also a volunteer service. It was established to combine the resources of any combination of a BFS Brigade, a VFRS Brigade, MR Group or^[which?] an SES Unit to replace the Volunteer Fire Services (VFS) and Volunteer Emergency Service (VES) in 2016^[10][3] It has just over 1,184 volunteers as of 2024^[update].

The State Emergency Service (SES) is a volunteer service with the role of attending a vast array^{[colloquialism?]} of natural disasters and search and rescue incidents.^[vague] They attend land searches for missing people, storm damage, urban search and rescue (USAR), cliff rescue, road crash rescue, transporting personnel and equipment to fires as well as many other roles. The SES has a K9 unit with volunteers' dogs being trained in searching for missing people and a mounted unit for land searches. As of 2024^[update] they had 1,020 members and 64 units.

The Marine Rescue Service Western Australia (VMRS) is another volunteer service tasked with assisting the Western Australian Police with searches for missing people or vessels, assisting disabled vessels and rescues in water around the state. As of 2024^[update] there are 39 MRS Groups with 1,570 volunteers.^[11][3]

In April 2018 a new Rural Fire Division was announced after the findings of the 2016 Waroona Bushfire Special Inquiry. It will be^[when?] another branch under the DFES structure and will consist of:^{[needs update][12]}

DFES

Title		Epaulette	Helmet
Commissioner		Crossed staffs in gold wreath with red background below a crown.	Black 2 × white stripes on both sides
Deputy Commissioner		Crossed staffs in gold wreath with red background below 3 pips	Black 1 × white stripe on both sides
Assistant Commissioner		Crossed staffs in gold wreath with red background below 2 pips	Black
Chief Superintendent		Crossed staffs in gold wreath with red background below 1 pip	Silver 1 × white stripe on both sides
Superintendent		Crossed staffs in gold wreath with red background	Silver
District Officer (Urban & Rural Fire)		3 blue impellors	Blue 1 × white stripe
District Officer (Natural Hazards)		3 gold pips	Blue 1 × whte stripe
Area Officer		2 blue impellors below a band	Blue
Community Emergency Services Manager (CESM)		2 gold pips, local government name printed below	Lime green 1 × white stripe on both sides
Career Fire & Rescue
Station Officer (SO)		2 blue impellors	Red 2 × blue impellors on both sides
Leading Firefighter		3 yellow chevrons below 2 crossed red axes	Yellow 3 × yellow chevrons on both sides
Senior Firefighter – 15 years (SFF–15)		3 × chevrons ( 2 × yellow above 1 × red) below 2 crossed red axes	Yellow 3 × chevrons ( 2 × yellow above 1 × red) on both sides
Senior Firefighter		2 × yellow chevrons below 2 crossed red axes	Yellow 2 × yellow chevrons on both sides
Firefighter 1st & 2nd class		1 × yellow chevron below 2 crossed red axes	Yellow 1 × yellow chevron on both sides
Firefighter 5th, 4th & 3rd class		2 crossed red axes	Yellow
Trainee Firefighter		Blank coloured epaulette	Yellow
Volunteer Fire & Rescue Service
VFRS Captain		3 × red bars below a red impellor	Lime green
VFRS Lieutenant		2 × red bars below a red impellor	White 1 × blue stripe on both sides
VFRS Apparatus Officer		1 × red bar below a red impellor	White 1 × green stripe on both sides
VFRS Secretaty (Non-active)		1 × yellow line above SECRETARY in writing
VFRS Leading Firefighter		3 × red chevrons below 2 crossed branches	White
VFRS Senior Firefighter		2 × red chevrons below 2 crossed branches	White
VFRS Qualified Firefighter		1 × red chevron below 2 crossed branches	White
VFRS Firefighter		2 crossed branches	White
VFRS Ex Captain		1 × yellow impellow above EX CAPTAIN in writing	White

The department maintains and coordinates a range of specialist equipment and emergency response vehicles. This includes pumpers and tankers, aerial ladders and other equipment designed to combat incidents including search and rescue, urban search and rescue (USAR), firefighting and other natural disasters.

Appliances used by DFES brigades groups and units include:^{[14][full citation needed]}

Vehicles are named based on their water capacity, drive type (2×4/4×4) and role. For example, 1.4R means approximately 1,000 litres (260 US gal), 4×4, designed for a rural environment.

In February 2023, a Coulson Aviation Boeing 737-300 crashed while fighting fires in Fitzgerald River National Park; both pilots survived the crash.^[15]

• National Council for Fire & Emergency Services