BULLSBROOK has been allocated $8 million in the state budget to replace the existing Bullsbrook Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services station.

Bullsbrook VFES captain Brian Davis said the $8m would help revamp the existing fire station that was no longer fit for purpose.

“The new facility will be purpose built for the brigade to fit in with DFES requirements for training, WHS and future additional services,” he said.

Mr Davis said the funding was adequate and would help the brigade acquire land and also cover the cost of a new facility, but the challenge for the team was to now find land that was local enough to be suitable.

“The whole brigade is very happy that this funding has been made available – we have requested a new facility for many years,” he said.

“Being one of the busiest metro volunteer fire brigades, we attend to over 150 incidents a year.

“With the increase in local population and Tonkin Highway, we attend more and more car crash incidents (and) we need better facilities for us to evolve into other specialised services to help keep our community safe.

“The new facility will be much larger, have better training facilities, meet the needs of our service and also double as an incident control centre for larger incidents in and around the area.”

Mr Davis said the Bullsbrook brigade members were excited to see the next stages and how the plans looked in actuality.

“A lot of work in the background went into driving this funding from the government and I am very glad to see light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Emergency Services Minister Paul Papalia said the state budget included an $80.6m emergency services package to better prepare emergency services for quicker responses.

“This funding will ensure emergency services personnel across Western Australia including in the hills region will be better prepared to respond to natural disasters,” he said.

As part of the funding, $6.7m was committed to support DFES’ aerial fire response capability, planning funds for a new state emergency management training centre were allocated to the tune of another $2m, and $7.8m to support operation of the national emergency alert warning system.