More lives and property saved in 2022-23 despite rise in major incidents

Our volunteers were kept extremely busy over the 2022-23 financial year, with crews responding to more than 10,000 incidents - a 10 per cent increase from the previous year for the state’s largest emergency service.

From fires to floods, CFS volunteers attended more than 2,000 road crash rescue incidents, nearly 1,400 rural fires, 156 hazardous material incidents and 366 structure fires across South Australia. We also responded to 3,875 special service incidents - these range from severe weather events to medical assistance for the SA Ambulance Service.

Due to the number of major weather events throughout the state, including our response and assistance during the River Murray flooding, the time CFS volunteers spent at special service incidents doubled from the previous year, totalling 30,546 hours.

Despite the overall increase of incidents at many of our 425 brigades, the total number of hours our crews were required at incidents plummeted to 691,125 - compared to the one million hours we have been used to seeing in previous years. This means our crews saved more lives and property because they were better resourced and faster to respond, and as an agency that is often the first responder, it’s critical that our growing volunteer crews have the right equipment, appliances and aircraft to deal with any emergency.

The CFS is currently holding bushfire preparedness activities across the state to ensure the community is informed and prepared ahead of the hot, dry El Niño conditions predicted this summer.