Building Volunteer Fire Brigade Capability Together

By John Stalker

Author, and member of Samford Rural Fire Brigade.

The July 1, 2024 reforms to the Queensland Rural Fire Service and volunteer brigade governance arrangements were of deep concern. At the time I recognised that a review of the existing legislation and governance framework was needed. However, what was most disturbing was the lack of genuine consultation with volunteers. Volunteers had invested a substantial part of their life in safeguarding communities, however, their views on possible improvements were ignored.

I am a member of the International Association of Wildland Fire, and I have been researching volunteer fire fighting arrangements in other countries for several years. My research questions included what factors enabled an effective volunteer fire service and what factors impeded service. This research led to developing the Volunteer Fire Brigade Capability Framework detailed in the publication Building Volunteer Fire Brigade Capability Together.

Building Volunteer Fire Brigade Capability Together examines the organisational conditions that allow volunteers to turn commitment, local knowledge and public resources into reliable community service. The book does not have an Australian focus, instead it applies to volunteer brigades in all countries. It treats the brigade as more than a station, an appliance or a list of members.

A brigade is an organised community of people, relationships, knowledge, leadership, identity and resources.

Drawing together research on volunteer firefighting, emergency management, organisational trust, leadership, learning, nonprofit capacity and resilience, the book develops an eight-element framework centred on community purpose, belonging, warranted trust, shared leadership, organisational learning, bounded autonomy, balanced renewal and adaptive continuity.

The book does not prescribe one ideal fire-service model. It provides a practical lens for understanding how decisions about recruitment, training, governance, funding, technology and reform can strengthen capability in one area while unintentionally weakening it elsewhere.

I have agreed to allow RFBAQ to make available the first three chapters of my book for download. The book is available through Amazon either as a paperback or Kindle version.

 Buy the full version from Amazon here.

 Download a sample here. 

Read the sample below.