Country Fire Authority's response times see Golden Square and Huntly top the region

Brigades responding to incidents in Huntly and Golden Square met the CFA time target at least 90 per cent of the time in the period between July 1 and September 30.

Incidents in the Kangaroo Flat fire response areas saw time targets met between 60 and 89 per cent of the time while the Eaglehawk area had response time targets me less than 60 per cent of the time.

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The data released by the CFA is from the first quarter of the 2020/21 financial year. In that time the CFA responded to 6016 incidents across the state - 2143 of which required an emergency response.

Across the state the CFA responded to 82 per cent of emergency incidents in significant urban areas within the standard response time of eight minutes.

In all other urban areas, the CFA responded to 79 per cent of emergency incidents in less than 10 minutes.

No CFA brigade areas had more than 10 emergency incidents in a rural area, resulting an insufficient sample size for data.

In Victoria, the community received a fire service within the standard response time for incidents that required an emergency response.

CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan said the data showed the consistent hard work of the CFA's firefighters, who are now all volunteers.

"Behind these results we find the hard work and consistent service of our volunteers who continue to respond to emergencies such as grass and bushfires, structural fires, HAZMAT incidents, road accidents, rescue incidents and more to keep the Victorian community safe," he said.

"I'm proud of the way they were able to continue to do that throughout the worldwide pandemic, which led to significant lockdowns in Victoria during this quarter."

The transition of 38 career CFA stations to Fire Rescue Victoria in July last year meant a reduction of incidents that required CFA crews to respond.

The the 2019/20 financial year there were 9830 CFA responses to incidents. In the same time frame of 2020/21, the CFA was required to respond to 6016 incidents.

Data showed three people died in residential fires between July and September last year. Mr Heffernan said it was a sobering warning ahead of the winter months.

"This is a sobering reminder as we move towards the colder months, when residential fires can be more prevalent," he said. "We encourage everyone to install smoke alarms in all recommended areas of their homes and to check the batteries regularly," he said.

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