CFA Leaders Accidentally Expose Short-Staffing During Fatal Fires

The Country Fire Authority's leaders have accidentally exposed how short-staffed its stations were during last summer's fatal fires, following an "administrative error" during a parliamentary inquiry.

The inquiry into the fires, which claimed one life, destroyed about 250 homes and burnt about 400,000 hectares, was held in April and May, with a final report due to be published next month.

But a series of emails, released by the upper house Environment and Planning Committee, reveals the CFA tried to retract its initial 33-page submission claiming potential "executive privilege".

It later sent an 18-page replacement.

The committee yesterday chose to release both CFA documents.

The first CFA submission claimed there was a lack of funding for firefighting infrastructure and senior staff vacancies in the districts hardest hit by January's fires.

It also revealed the CFA had received around a third of the funding it asked for from the state government during the last three financial years.

"CFA has consistently raised concerns regarding not only the capacity of resources provided by FRV [Fire Rescue Victoria], but also the capability of those resources," the CFA's initial submission said.

The second, edited submission, did not include details about the number of staff that were not present during the fires.

The 'working draft' sent

The CFA appeared at the inquiry's public hearings on May 1, and were given questions on notice.

On June 4 its response was emailed to the committee by CFA acting deputy chief officer Scott Purdy.

But according to correspondence released by the parliamentary committee, less than 24 hours later, Mr Purdy asked for the document to be "returned to the CFA".

He claimed due to his own administrative error "the submission was not complete and was a working drat (sic)".

Emails subsequently released by the committee showed CFA chief executive officer, Greg Leach, stated the first submission should be "disregarded" on the basis of "executive privilege", among other reasons.

On June 30, the CFA sent an updated, and much slimmed down, submission to the inquiry committee.

Both versions have been released to the public.

In a statement to media, Mr Leach said the CFA "inadvertently" sent a working draft to the parliamentary committee, and that it had resent the correct version.

"This response was provided on 30 June 2026, based on the Guidelines for appearing before and producing documents to Victorian Inquiries (November 2025)," he said.

Under-resourced brigades

The initial CFA submission revealed half the paid CFA staff in the Longwood and Hardcourt districts were away when the January fires occurred.

Together, these two towns took the brunt of the out-of-control fires, which destroyed hundreds of homes, and stretched firefighting resources.

The CFA's first submission revealed there were four positions vacant in Longwood and six in Harcourt.

"In the weeks leading up to 5 January, this under-resourcing was consistent, resulting in sustained operational pressure," the initial submission said.

Across the state, there were 29 CFA senior operation leader vacancies, the initial submission revealed.

The specific number of vacancies were not included in the second submission.

The CFA's first submission said that since 2020, the CFA had consistently been required to "operate with a further reduced operational command workforce, on average of 17.2 persons per week" or about an 11 per cent drop in its workforce.

It stated there would be "significant benefit in having a more direct role in recruitment and selection processes for FRV employees appointed to senior (CFA) operational leadership positions".

CFA’s senior operational leaders are provided via a secondment agreement between CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria which was part of the fire services revamp in 2020.

Funding shortfall detailed

The CFA's initial submission also revealed it had received about one third of the funding it needed for key infrastructure upgrades such as firefighting equipment, tankers and pumpers.

"In the three years FY 2022-23 to FY 2024-25 inclusive, CFA has submitted requests to the State Budget process totalling $330.57m, with $117.95m approved," the initial statement revealed.

The submission stated new fire stations cost three-to-four times as much since the government's Community Safety Building Authority (CSBA) took over responsibility for building new sheds in 2022, and that less sheds were being built.

"In the 13 years prior to the transition to CSBA, CFA built 386 fire stations. Since the transition in August 2022, there have been 9 new stations delivered to CFA," the submission stated.

Danny O'Brien, the leader of the Victorian Nationals, claimed the state government had intervened in the process, which he labelled a huge concern.

"Nearly 20 per cent of the CFA career staff positions were vacant at the start of the January bushfires right across the state … (that) restricts the ability of our CFA to support the volunteers and the brigades that were actually fighting the fires."

The Victorian government has been contacted for comment.

Mr O'Brien said Labor's 2020 fire services changes were a failure which has affected community safety.

He would not state whether the Coalition would make changes in this area.

"We haven't yet released our emergency services policy," he said.