Days out from the crucial Werribee by-election, it has been revealed Fire Rescue Victoria has just one appliance covering the area’s 340,000 residents.
Gavin Marshall from the United Firefighter’s Union said the ageing truck had no GPS, forcing crews to use an old-fashioned street directory.
“It’s bad enough that we worry as a firefighter about our equipment actually working when we get to a fire,” he said.
“Currently we are still running Melways.
“While that would have been acceptable in 1996, but it’s 2025 and we turn out to jobs not knowing what we might be facing you can’t really make a mistake.”
Mr Marshall said the closest high-rescue platform was 30 minutes away, and even that unit was unreliable.
“The next closest is Footscray.
“They did turn out to a fire recently in Tarneit, and they were unable to use the basket of the ladder platform – it could only be used as a water tower.
“Barring that, the next one is Richmond.”
Meantime, close to 10,000 people have already voted in the Werribee by-election.
The vote caused by the retirement late last year of former Treasurer Tim Pallas.
A further 13 per cent have applied for postal votes ahead of Saturday’s by-election.
