YOUNG mother Amandeep Kaur has a message for the state government - do not close fire stations under any circumstance.
Ms Kaur, her husband Mandeep Singh and 20-month-old son Ekamjot owe their lives to the swift action of Parramatta firefighters when their Harris Park unit caught alight earlier this year.
“The firemen came minutes after I called - a few minutes later and we would not have escaped,” Ms Kaur told The Parramatta Advertiser.
Parramatta fire station, a few streets away in Harris Park, was closed temporarily recently due to an industrial dispute between the fire officers union and the NSW fire service.
If the station had been closed at the time of the fire in the Bowden St apartment, it was likely the young family would have perished.
Ms Kaur had been about to throw her young son off her third-storey balcony to people below during the fire in July this year when firefighters arrived.
Parramatta station officer Bob Callow said if his firefighting unit had not arrived when it did, the family would have perished.
“It was the hottest fire I have attended. For the family, there were only minutes to spare,” Mr Callow said.
The union says the government’s overtime cutback led to stations being closed, while Emergency Services Minister Mike Gallacher blamed the union’s work bans.
A union rep based at Wentworthville, Warren Keevers, said firefighters were forced to put bans on providing relief between shifts and administrative duties but that action should not have led to any station being closed.
“It was the fire service which decided to close stations and we don’t trust that they will not do it again,” Mr Keevers said.
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