Firefighters using paper maps to find emergencies

The Advertiser

5 days ago

Firefighters are being forced to rely on personal phones and printed maps to find their way to emergencies, more than two years after a cyber attack damaged communication systems in one state's fire services.
Fire Rescue Victoria is investigating the cause of four system outages last month, which lasted up to seven hours at a time.
The United Firefighters Union says the outages are risking public safety. The Station Turn Out System, used to dispatch crews to emergencies failed, with firefighters receiving phone calls from dispatchers asking if they had received notices to attend emergencies.
The notices had never arrived.
Firefighters and dispatchers had to rely on fallbacks and workarounds like manual phone calls, pagers, and pen & paper to respond to emergencies.
The union says one outage occurred on April 26, followed by the four in May.
The same system also provides emergency tones throughout stations, delivers routing information to firefighters and advice on hydrant location.
In its absence firefighters relied on a combination of Google Maps on their personal phones, Melway street directories, and separate apps.
The union said neither the outages nor resolutions were communicated by management to firefighters -instead they became aware through communication between stations or a call from Triple Zero Victoria.
In a letter sent to Commissioner Gavin Freeman seen by AAP, United Firefighters Union Secretary Peter Marshall said the failure of the critical systems put firefighters and the community at risk.
"The failure of these systems has potentially grave impacts," Mr Marshall told AAP on Sunday.
"Firefighters are resourceful in protecting public safety, but these failures make that job more difficult and dangerous."
Questions still remain over the December 2022 cyber attack.
The hack significantly affected Fire Rescue Victoria's technology and communications systems and exposed sensitive information.
It also left the FIRECOM firefighting information system offline for a year, affected the rostering system for much longer.Fire Rescue Victoria has been contacted for comment.
Firefighters are being forced to rely on personal phones and printed maps to find their way to emergencies, more than two years after a cyber attack damaged communication systems in one state's fire services.
Fire Rescue Victoria is investigating the cause of four system outages last month, which lasted up to seven hours at a time.
The United Firefighters Union says the outages are risking public safety. The Station Turn Out System, used to dispatch crews to emergencies failed, with firefighters receiving phone calls from dispatchers asking if they had received notices to attend emergencies.
The notices had never arrived.
Firefighters and dispatchers had to rely on fallbacks and workarounds like manual phone calls, pagers, and pen & paper to respond to emergencies.
The union says one outage occurred on April 26, followed by the four in May.
The same system also provides emergency tones throughout stations, delivers routing information to firefighters and advice on hydrant location.
In its absence firefighters relied on a combination of Google Maps on their personal phones, Melway street directories, and separate apps.
The union said neither the outages nor resolutions were communicated by management to firefighters -instead they became aware through communication between stations or a call from Triple Zero Victoria.
In a letter sent to Commissioner Gavin Freeman seen by AAP, United Firefighters Union Secretary Peter Marshall said the failure of the critical systems put firefighters and the community at risk.
"The failure of these systems has potentially grave impacts," Mr Marshall told AAP on Sunday.
"Firefighters are resourceful in protecting public safety, but these failures make that job more difficult and dangerous."
Questions still remain over the December 2022 cyber attack.
The hack significantly affected Fire Rescue Victoria's technology and communications systems and exposed sensitive information.
It also left the FIRECOM firefighting information system offline for a year, affected the rostering system for much longer.Fire Rescue Victoria has been contacted for comment.
Firefighters are being forced to rely on personal phones and printed maps to find their way to emergencies, more than two years after a cyber attack damaged communication systems in one state's fire services.
Fire Rescue Victoria is investigating the cause of four system outages last month, which lasted up to seven hours at a time.
The United Firefighters Union says the outages are risking public safety. The Station Turn Out System, used to dispatch crews to emergencies failed, with firefighters receiving phone calls from dispatchers asking if they had received notices to attend emergencies.
The notices had never arrived.
Firefighters and dispatchers had to rely on fallbacks and workarounds like manual phone calls, pagers, and pen & paper to respond to emergencies.
The union says one outage occurred on April 26, followed by the four in May.
The same system also provides emergency tones throughout stations, delivers routing information to firefighters and advice on hydrant location.
In its absence firefighters relied on a combination of Google Maps on their personal phones, Melway street directories, and separate apps.
The union said neither the outages nor resolutions were communicated by management to firefighters -instead they became aware through communication between stations or a call from Triple Zero Victoria.
In a letter sent to Commissioner Gavin Freeman seen by AAP, United Firefighters Union Secretary Peter Marshall said the failure of the critical systems put firefighters and the community at risk.
"The failure of these systems has potentially grave impacts," Mr Marshall told AAP on Sunday.
"Firefighters are resourceful in protecting public safety, but these failures make that job more difficult and dangerous."
Questions still remain over the December 2022 cyber attack.
The hack significantly affected Fire Rescue Victoria's technology and communications systems and exposed sensitive information.
It also left the FIRECOM firefighting information system offline for a year, affected the rostering system for much longer.Fire Rescue Victoria has been contacted for comment.
Firefighters are being forced to rely on personal phones and printed maps to find their way to emergencies, more than two years after a cyber attack damaged communication systems in one state's fire services.
Fire Rescue Victoria is investigating the cause of four system outages last month, which lasted up to seven hours at a time.
The United Firefighters Union says the outages are risking public safety. The Station Turn Out System, used to dispatch crews to emergencies failed, with firefighters receiving phone calls from dispatchers asking if they had received notices to attend emergencies.
The notices had never arrived.
Firefighters and dispatchers had to rely on fallbacks and workarounds like manual phone calls, pagers, and pen & paper to respond to emergencies.
The union says one outage occurred on April 26, followed by the four in May.
The same system also provides emergency tones throughout stations, delivers routing information to firefighters and advice on hydrant location.
In its absence firefighters relied on a combination of Google Maps on their personal phones, Melway street directories, and separate apps.
The union said neither the outages nor resolutions were communicated by management to firefighters -instead they became aware through communication between stations or a call from Triple Zero Victoria.
In a letter sent to Commissioner Gavin Freeman seen by AAP, United Firefighters Union Secretary Peter Marshall said the failure of the critical systems put firefighters and the community at risk.
"The failure of these systems has potentially grave impacts," Mr Marshall told AAP on Sunday.
"Firefighters are resourceful in protecting public safety, but these failures make that job more difficult and dangerous."
Questions still remain over the December 2022 cyber attack.
The hack significantly affected Fire Rescue Victoria's technology and communications systems and exposed sensitive information.
It also left the FIRECOM firefighting information system offline for a year, affected the rostering system for much longer.Fire Rescue Victoria has been contacted for comment.