NSW Fire Brigades to change its name

[Phil]

17th December 2010

Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan today announced that the NSW Fire Brigades (NSWFB) will change its name to Fire and Rescue NSW from 1 January 2011.

The Minister said that the new name better reflects the services the organisation delivers to the community.

"The name Fire Brigades was coined 100 years ago and reflected the service for a long time, but today’s hardworking firefighters do much more than just put out fires,"Mr Whan said.

"The Brigades is now the largest provider of rescue services across NSW. Last year alone firefighters attended more than 9800 non fire related rescues, that’s equivalent to around one rescue every hour, every day of the year.

"These rescues have included helping people in car accidents, industrial, confined spaces or height rescues, rescues from building collapses as well as animal rescues.

"By comparison, the Brigades attended 7500 structures fires in the same period."

Mr Whan said that over the last decade the NSW Government had overseen an unprecedented expansion and modernisation of the NSWFB.

"The NSWFB has a long and proud history of keeping the community safe and as our cities and suburbs have grown and changed, so too has the organisation.

"It’s now a multi functional emergency service that in collaboration with other agencies provides rapid responses to a range of urgent situations across the state.

"Our firefighters are professional and highly respected both at home and internationally and they work hard to provide fire and rescue services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Last year they responded to around 135,000 emergency calls. On average, every four minutes a red fire engine with a highly trained crew is racing to help someone in the community in their time of need."

Commissioner Greg Mullins said that rescue was now a major part of the work of a modern, urban fire service.

"Changing our name to Fire and Rescue NSW better reflects that we offer far more than just firefighting and fire prevention services. This will help people better understand that they can call on our help in a variety of situations," Commissioner Mullins said.

"We are a contemporary, service based organisation that has grown significantly since first being established over a hundred years ago and it’s time that our name accurately reflects the variety of work that we do.

"We have also recently undergone significant reforms and Fire and Rescue NSW symbolises our new direction."
RESCUE FACTS:

* Rescue includes rescuing people from car accidents, industrial, confined spaces and vertical rescue, rescues from building collapses and animal rescues;
* Major rescues attended by NSWFB include:
o 1989 Newcastle earthquake;
o 1990 Grafton bus crash;
o 1990 Cowra train crash;
o 1997 Thredbo landslide;
o 1999 Glenbrook train crash;
o 2003 Waterfall train crash;
o 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

[UHF-HUNTER]

I'm happy with the change


Can also confirm FIRE RESCUE NSW will be going onto the P25 GRN mid Feb 2011

[Phil]

yes the NSW Rural Fire Service are the guinea pigs for the P25 Network through the fire season. not much fire though as it has rained more than i have seen the sun this december

[UHF-HUNTER]

yes the NSW Rural Fire Service are the guinea pigs for the P25 Network through the fire season. not much fire though as it has rained more than i have seen the sun this december

I have heard one Zone with a bridge...

PMR to GRN
PMR to P25 GRN

Something like that
Anyone else hear this?
I think it was Hornsby I was travelling and have mutliple scanners running.

One on P25, One of Ana and one on PMR

[eJanice]

It would be best for them to make changes in terms of the services they offer. Do an enhancement not only for their name but to have good strategies of helping out. Anyhow, we're glad to know that the largest provider of rescue services has its new name.

[Stretch]

Don't get me started about this. My Grandfather is furious at is also. I personally think it's stupid and a waste of money spent researching and making new uniforms with the new name on them.

[UHF-HUNTER]

Don't get me started about this. My Grandfather is furious at is also. I personally think it's stupid and a waste of money spent researching and making new uniforms with the new name on them.

I've been a member for 5 years, I think the name change and uniform upgrade is a fantastic idea. The uniforms where actually been replaced due to not meeting the Australian Standerds so. The name change has been in the pipeline for 2.5-3 years so I'm guessing they have decided while the uniforms are been changed the name will change also. That sounds like SAVING money right there. It also gives a face lift and new look to the brigade.
This doesn't kill the history of the NSWFB it's making more. The money has been allocated for these project so let it happen. Ive also been told the station that did the photo shoot where told to keep the PPE and the roll out for the initial set (1) starts Feb 2011 and the 2nd set will begin to roll out Feb 2012.

[Phil]

yes the NSW Rural Fire Service are the guinea pigs for the P25 Network through the fire season. not much fire though as it has rained more than i have seen the sun this december

I have heard one Zone with a bridge...

PMR to GRN
PMR to P25 GRN

Something like that
Anyone else hear this?
I think it was Hornsby I was travelling and have mutliple scanners running.

One on P25, One of Ana and one on PMR

thank you for the question i have been told that is sounds rather bad as the P25 system is designed to have enhanced audio qualities and analogue contains alot of static which it really does not like, when i am travelling i only have the 996t with me which had both the PMR & A GRN on it i will now have to put the P25 GRN on it.

Personally I would of preferred see a new name 'branding' structure like that of Queensland, it makes it a hell of a lot less confusing for yobbos like myself in other states to keep track of things!

honestly i don't see them needing a change as they work well together as it is just like the CFA and MFB in victoria you ring 000 and that is it the operator from the NSW Fire will make the decision if it is "Urbans" or "Rurals" i have seen them both respond to the same job due to resources but essentially they are two seperate government bodies.

[Rohan]

yeah it cost qld upwards of 1 to 2 milion to change its stationary from department of emergency services to the department of comunity safety

[Comint]

yeah it cost qld upwards of 1 to 2 milion to change its stationary from department of emergency services to the department of comunity safety

Yeah! And I wonder what the cost was of them changing the names on the ACMA Database.

QAS and QFRS are now Department of Community Safety (Qxxx)(Client No) - where Qxxx is QAS or QFRS fully spelt out, as applicable, and the Rural Fire Service is just listed as Department of Community Safety (270141).

Over the past 20 years, the Fire Services in Queensland have undergone a number of name changes. From being individual Town and City Brigades prior to 1990, they became the Queensland Fire Service (QFS) in June 1990, and this was renamed the Queensland Fire and Rescue Authority (QFRA) in 1997, and renamed again to the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service (QFRS) in November 2001.

--
Comint

[newbie]

Does anyone know how much it will cost for the name change? ie signage, uniforms etc etc

[Stretch]

Does anyone know how much it will cost for the name change? ie signage, uniforms etc etc

A lot!!!


Cheers,
Mitch
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JAFO]

Does anyone know how much it will cost for the name change? ie signage, uniforms etc etc

Been a member of the FRNSW for over 22 years now, and as far as I am concern the name change is long overdue.

The name NSWFB came about when there was only one recognised Fire Service in the State of NSW, the old Bush Fire Service had not been established at the time and we were the only recognised State Fire Service, so the name was appropriate for the time but with the birth of the Department of Bushfire Services, it also marked a time in our history where we had started to outgrow the name NSW Fire Brigades.

Over the years I have come across abundant number of people both in the Metro and Country areas that believed the NSW Fire Brigades included both the NSWFB and the NSWBFB’s (now the NSWRFS), even to a point where I have had people at Station Open Days swear black & blue that the BOSS / Officer in-charge of the NSWFB was the Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service, so now we have a name that singles us out as a standalone fire service and not a name that represents all NSW Fire Services as a whole – about time I say.

As for the cost of the name change??? The cost to change over Uniform Items would incurre very little cost, as from when the name change was announced it was about a further 6 months before any uniform items with the new name badges started filtering through to stations as current stocks of old uniform items were used up, so the only uniform cost to date has been the setup cost of the new embroidered shoulder badges and screen printing of the T-shirt front service crest, markings on the back of our T-Shirts, Work Shirts and Fire Jackets have not changed.

And as started before, the "New Turnout Gear" that we are getting, well that has been in the pipe line for about 3 years since the Australian Standards changed making our current turnout gear redundent, in fact New Turnout Gear was announced back around Mid 2010 and the first lot of New Turnout Gear was supposed to have started hitting Stations back in March/April 2011, only that the tendering and testing process had taken much longer then first planned and the New Turnout gear Contract was only awarded around October last year (Oct 2011), so a good 9 months after we had changed our name to Fire and Rescue NSW.

Stationary, well items like Letter Heads are produced via Microsoft Word and are printed off as part of a word document, so no cost there. Items like envelopes, well like uniform items old stationary items stock with NSWFB markings were to be used up before New Name Stationary Items were printed off by the "State Printing Service", our station is still using NSWFB Branded envelopes and our Station Stamps still show NSWFB 12 months on from the Name Change.

The biggest noticeable change and cost would be with “Fire and Rescue NSW” markings showing up on the side of our Fire Appliances. As Station’s appliances are re-assigned to another Station they have the old NSWFB Marking replaced with the New FRNSW markings, and if they undergo the “Mid Life Upgrades” they also receive the New Yellow Hi-Vis Markings along with the new Name Markings like New appliance entering service.

And it is already paying of,it always seemed most TV News Services were lowed to call us by our Name NSW Fire Brigades and majority of the time they would only refer to us as the Fire Service, most now refer to us as “Fire & Rescue NSW” on news articles – so we now seem to have a standalone identity 

[Macca3369]

yes the NSW Rural Fire Service are the guinea pigs for the P25 Network through the fire season. very little fire however as it has rained more than i have seen the sun this August...!!!

Not in my district we have had very little rain and it is shaping up to be a early fire season ps I'm in Region East...

[Newy1234]

yes the NSW Rural Fire Service are the guinea pigs for the P25 Network through the fire season. very little fire however as it has rained more than i have seen the sun this August...!!!

5 year old thread???