Tamworth, Werris Creek and Quirindi fire stations could be closed intermittently after Industrial Relations Commission decision

Fire Brigade Employees' Union country representative Tim Anderson said the government was now allowed to close Tamworth Station 452, in East Tamworth.

"It's an absolute travesty," he said.

"If you look at any other community that is a similar size in other states they would have at least two [full-time] funded fire stations as well as [part-time] retained."

With just one station guaranteed to be fully operational, any river blockage could slow or halt a firefighting response, he said.

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About 30 stations could face temporary shutdowns according to the plan, in which understaffed small stations can be closed when they can't find a full four-member crew.

Stations had previously been topped up by staff from surrounding stations working overtime, or from a special team of relieving firefighters.

Fire and Rescue (FRNSW) NSW Deputy Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said that firefighting coverage is managed centrally and the service is able to provide rapid emergency response "independent of a fixed fire station location".

"Under FRNSW's risk-based approach, a truck is only taken offline when there are more than sufficient resources in the area to respond to emergencies," he said.

"The needs of the community are always taken into account when making a decision to take an appliance offline.

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"Contrary to the Fire Brigade Employees Union's (FBEU) claims, FRNSW is not closing any fire stations. The new industrial order is reflective of FRNSW's contemporary approach to incident and risk management and the Industrial Relations Commission's decision supports FRNSW's mandate to continually provide world-class service delivery to the people of NSW."

He said on-call firefighter recruitment, availability and retention has been a long-standing issue within the service.

FRNSW recently launched a career program to attract more on-call firefighters to its ranks, he said.

South Tamworth station 448 union representative Luc Eddy said the small communities of Werris Creek and Quirindi would be particularly badly affected by the statewide plan because they often support each other.

Werris Creek's next nearest station, in South Tamworth, is about half-an-hour away, he said.

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"It could have a very detrimental effect. It's quite feasible that lives will be lost because they don't have the fire coverage, so the response times are being raised," he said.

"We're going from a response time of a couple of minutes for the guys at Werris Creek to attend a job to quite feasibly a lot more."

Union state secretary Leighton Drury said the government "is allowing local fire stations to shut down to save money".

Mr Eddy said it wasn't yet clear how the zone command would use the new power, but if both stations were simultaneously closed, South Tamworth 448 would be the closest station to Werris Creek.

It's a half-an-hour drive between the two towns, he said.

"Werris Creek's probably a spot this shouldn't be even considered because there is very minimal ambulance coverage there too," he said.

"I know guys at Werris Creek have attended multiple cardiac incidents in the last six months. They were first arriving. They were the ones that had the [defibrillator] on board and performed CPR."

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