The South Australian Country Fire Service (SACFS, commonly abbreviated as CFS) is a volunteer based fire service in the Australian state of South Australia. The CFS has responsibility as the Control Agency for firefighting, rescues and hazardous materials and inland waterways in the country regions of South Australia. Its official mission is "To protect life, property and the environment from fire and other emergencies whilst protecting and supporting our personnel and continuously improving."
Many parts of Australia are sparsely populated and under significant risk of bushfire. It would be prohibitively expensive for each Australian town or village to have a paid fire service (department). The compromise adopted is to have government funded equipment and training but volunteer fire-fighters to perform the duties of regular fire-fighters. In South Australia, the name for the volunteer service is the CFS. Each Australian State and Territory has its own service, such as the Country Fire Authority in the state of Victoria and the Rural Fire Service in the state of New South Wales.
In the state capital Adelaide and larger towns in South Australia, a conventional paid service exists, the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS). Most towns (over 430 communities) rely on the CFS. Several Adelaide suburbs that retain extensive scrubland have CFS stations whose area of operation overlaps that of the SAMFS with joint training exercises sometimes organised for major community facilities such as the Flinders Medical Centre. For urban incidents, both services will often attend with the Metropolitan Fire Service taking command.
Appearance
The Country Fire Service fire appliances are painted white, rather than red as in many other fire services worldwide. This provides greater visibility on road, and in thick smoke. The day/night striping down the sides of appliances is either the old silver and red standard, or a newer red and gold chequering. Appliances made after 2012 have the newest red and bright yellow chequering. The red and bright yellow chequering provides much better visibility, particularly for crews working on roads. Some appliances are also trialling battenburg striping with bright chevrons on the rear of the appliances.
Fire fighters wear yellow protective clothing, with a two-piece set being the standard (Bunker pants, and turn out coat). With the introduction of PBI Gold (improved structural fire-fighting clothing), all CFS volunteers who have completed BA training are now seen wearing yellow/brown coloured clothing. All turn out coats have "CFS" or "FIRE" on the back in reflective writing. More modern jackets also have day/night striping around the sleeves and bottom of the jacket. Safety Vests are provided for work on the roads. these have "Fire", "Rescue", or "CFS" on both front and back in reflective writing.
Fire fighters' helmets are white, (senior fire fighters have a red stripe), with the fire fighters surname on the back of the helmet in red writing on a glow-in-the-dark background. Lieutenants and Captains have yellow helmets (the captain has a red stripe), and Deputy Group Officers and above have red helmets. Regional staff have a blue stripe on their helmet.
History
In colonial times, the government attempted to control the outbreak of wildfires by legislating against the careless use of fire. This began with the 1847 ordinance against reckless burn-offs of stubble and grass. The challenge of fire suppression was left to local residents who would band together to fight fires without any formal organisation or authority. In 1913, district councils were given the right to appoint fire control officers given the power to do anything 'necessary or expedient and practicable' to prevent fires or to protect life and property.
As firefighting technology advanced during World War II, a government-equipped volunteer Emergency Fire Service (EFS) brigade was established in Adelaide followed by additional brigades in some country areas. After the war, equipment from these brigades was lent to district councils for rural firefighting work. To supervise the program, an Emergency Fire Services division was formed as a division of the police department.