Fire Rescue Victoria

Our response times

FRV is committed to providing the best possible service to the community.

If you call us, we will be there, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

About response times

  • Response times are measured by the length of time between an appliance being dispatched to an emergency incident and arrival on scene.

    Response time is defined as the interval between appliance dispatched and the arrival of the first vehicle at the scene.

    That is, when the vehicle is stationary and handbrake is applied.

  • Response times can be affected by a range of factors, including:

    • Single appliance stations
    • Larger areas for individual brigades to cover in outer suburbs (resulting in longer travel times)
    • Road network congestion (particularly in peak times)
    • Road works (i.e. major works on freeway systems)
    • Road traffic collisions
    • Rail crossings and boom gates
    • Extreme weather
    • Increase in urban sprawl
    • Time of day
  • FRV is committed to releasing response time performance data quarterly.

  • Statistics are published by Station Maintenance Area.

    Station Maintenance Areas not responding to a minimum number of incidents are not reported on. This is because the numbers are not statistically significant.

  • These reports include response time data for the first FRV appliance responding to incidents in the FRV district.

    • Response time is defined as the interval between appliance dispatched and the arrival of the first vehicle at the scene. That is, when the vehicle is stationary and handbrake is applied.
    • Structure Fire, Emergency Medical Response and all Emergencies are reported by fire station maintenance area.
    • Reporting period is quarterly.
    • A minimum of ten incidents per fire station maintenance area for the reporting period to be included in the report.
    • Emergency calls only excludes all calls where vehicles travel ‘Code 3’ (under normal road conditions).
    • Excludes records with incomplete time stamps and records where the appliance was called off en-route to scene.
    • Includes ‘genuine’ outliers and 0 response times (i.e. where passing appliance notifies the event).
    • Data Source(s): AIRS/Firecom database.

Reviewed 22 May 2023

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