Victoria's professional firefighters union has entered its fifth day of protected industrial action, as it pushes for improvements to firefighter and community safety from the state government.
The union is calling for updates to appliances including trucks, more recruits and additional training.
Ballarat-based United Firefighters Union (UFU) delegate Luke Shearer said the campaign would run until the Andrews government came to the party.
"We're not happy with how professional firefighters and the community are being treated," he said.
FRV firefighters in Ballarat have painted their fleet with slogans directed at the state government — like "Not happy Dan" and "you don't call politicians when your house is on fire".
"We've requested our members to put these slogans on their appliances and stations, so that the community is aware the government's not funding the fire service properly, and there is a safety risk to the community," Mr Shearer said.
No impact on frontline services
Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV)'s emergency response will not be impacted, with the action focusing on firefighters' administrative duties, such as reports to managers following incident call-outs.
"There's no change to frontline service delivery," Mr Shearer said.
In a statement, a government spokesperson said the government would "keep engaging in good faith to reach a settlement".
"We welcome the union's reported statement that public safety will not be put at risk," it said.
'Old, unsafe' appliances, lack of recruits
Statewide, FRV has 220 appliances, 25 of which the UFU said were more than 25 years old.
The UFU has written to the government for funding to deliver new appliances.
"An employer shouldn't expect their employees to drive around … in appliances that old, it's simply not safe," Mr Shearer said.
Mr Shearer said Ballarat's station was still waiting to receive a replacement for its breathing apparatus support truck, after it was de-commissioned last year.
"The appliances we've got in Ballarat give us the capability to run breathing apparatus operations for about an hour, so anything over that, there's a possibility we'll have to withdraw our firefighters," he said.
The closest breathing apparatus support truck was in Bendigo or South Melbourne, at least 90 minutes away.
Mr Shearer said another key issue affecting the FRV was the lack of recruiting and access to additional training.
"It's impacting our ability to have people in the positions we need them (in)," he said.
According to the government, the FRV received more than $104 million in funding for capital upgrades in the past two years and has been provided with an extra 450 firefighters since 2015.
