In October 2025 the RFBAQ initiated a QFD RTI search of OBM 118 – Rural Fire Service Queensland - Fleet Asset Warranty / Fault Report forms, and its predecessor form, including attached photos and attached written appraisals, from January 2025 to date, that pertain to Bell manufactured fire appliances in service with QFD.
Results from that RTI and the history of the build process are available on our website here.
In that search we discovered that the filling in of OBM 118 forms to track problems was very hit and miss.
On the 29th April 2026 we again wrote requesting a RTI search of OBM 118 – Rural Fire Service Queensland - Fleet Asset Warranty / Fault Report forms; including attached photos, videos, emails and attached written appraisals, from, and including, 1st November 2025 to, and including, 30th April 2026, that pertain to Bell manufactured fire appliances in service with QFD.
From the 924 pages received there were 154 OBM forms in scope, as a couple supplied were from not Bell trucks, 1 was a tilt tray and the other was a light attack.
110 forms were supplied by Regions and 44 from State.
80 forms from Regions were not reflected in a matching form from State and 14 from State were not reflected in Region.
That means that only 30 OBM 118 forms from Region had a matching State OBM 118 form. No forms from State completed Section 3, which is where State records what they did with the problem sent in by the Regions.
Excel spreadsheets compiling all the reported faults can be downloaded here
Currently there are 83 Bell manufactured Medium Attacks on fleet, and RFSQ has just ordered another 20 of the same design.
The oldest truck is approximately 3 years old with an average age of approximately 18 months. These trucks are meant to have a forecast lifespan of 20 years.
Take aways from the exercise that is not data related
RFSQ across Queensland have a huge number of vacant positions in Area offices. As an example, Northern Region has approximately 70 positions with 30 of them unfilled. The small number of frontline staff that are left, spend their time dealing with recurrent truck related issues; issues that require multiple emails back and forward with State and the truck builder. This is time that is not spent training or doing other support activities for brigades.
The conversation in Northern Region is about how to supply generators at staging areas to keep the trucks powered up overnight when on deployment, as batteries can go flat very quickly. Another added level of complexity and logistical need that was not previously necessary.
In one email conversation between State and the truck builder that was attached to a OBM form, it was stated that upon ringing the brigade to establish the issue, the brigade had multiple other issues that they had not reported. No subsequent forms were created to reflect these issues.
Every time RACQ is called to replace a set of failed batteries a OBM form is not generated.
Brigades live with problems that they do not report as they just try and work with what they have. Here’s a list Dave and Billie from Bungadoo RFB supplied to RFSQ of turn outs and problems earlier this year:
Double-click to zoom
What to do now
Medium Attacks are the backbone of the Rural Fire Fleet with currently approximately 600 in service.
Of that 600 currently 10% are of the new design with less water and vastly more moving parts, with another 20 being built.
We are going into the largest fire season Queensland has seen since to 2019/2020 fire season with both an ageing and more fragile fleet.
In February, following the results of the previous RTI search, we wrote to the Government with the below -
The RFBAQ conducted a Right to Information search and the results and history of the truck build programme are available on the RFBAQ website - https://www.rfbaq.org/announcements/rtiresults
Very few disasters are from a single momentous decision, rather they are a culmination of multiple wrong steps that accumulate into calamity.
The history in the website article clearly and undeniably shows that the QFD is incapable of turning this safety issue around before fire season starts.
I would like to recommend that -
QFleet be brought into the QFD to –
- Investigate previous procurement process failures
- Emplace new transparent and compliant procurement processes, either supplied internally or externally
- Develop immediate measures to minimize the current high risk of fire truck failures ahead of the upcoming fire season
- Investigate the risk and mitigation program QFD has undertaken since 2019, when the identified hazard of overweight fire trucks was raised.
Matters like the medium attack build process, overweight fire trucks, the shambolic new brigade finance system, and brigade station build financial overruns demonstrate that the fire service is broken.
