Fiona Burns has been an inspirational member of CFA for more than 21 years, serving as a member of two brigades (Launching Place and Hillcrest) and is the group officer of Yarra Valley Group.
She has served with distinction as an officer of her brigade and group for 19 of her 21 years of CFA service.
Fiona has distinguished herself through her outstanding ability and reputation as an extremely capable member of incident management teams. As a result, she was chosen to take on Level 3 planning officer role in incident control centres (ICC) at large and prolonged, multi-agency campaign fires in 2013, 2019-20 and again in 2024 in Gippsland and the Grampians. In addition, she has represented CFA internationally as a planning officer undertaking two seven-week stints to support fire suppression in Canada in 2014 and 2015. She has been a Level 3 Accredited Planning Officer for ten years.
“I love the planning officer role because I can take my fireground skills and use them in ICCs to support our firefighters on the front line,” Ms Burns said.
“It’s a demanding role but I really enjoy the challenges.”
Ms Burns is also an experienced fireground commander where she identifies emerging operational leaders with whom she willingly shares her significant experience. Her extensive fire management experience and analytical ability were influential during the successful transition of the former Launching Place and Woori Yallock brigades into one new brigade – Hillcrest Fire Brigade – in 2007. As a member of the brigade management team, she played a pivotal role in the transition to the new brigade. The once rural bushfire-focused brigades were transformed into a strong peri-urban brigade responsible for a rapidly growing population with an increasing diversity of hazards.
The amalgamation resulted in reduced duplication, consolidated resources and improved service delivery to the communities.
Ms Burns said there were a lot of challenges and there isn’t a template for amalgamation.
“We knew we had to take a long-term strategic view to bring brigades with different cultures and ways of operating into one brigade with a new culture,” she said.
“It was difficult but has been really rewarding.”
As brigade captain, Fiona was responsible for driving the creation of an emergency services hub with Ambulance Victoria, co-locating an ambulance at Hillcrest Fire Station to allow better medical response for the Yarra Valley and surrounds. Fiona was a foundation mentor in CFA’s statewide Women In Leadership mentoring program, and she is still involved in this important initiative. She has also been part of the District 13 Captains’ Leadership Mentoring Program, providing guidance to new captains about leadership and administration.
Ms Burns said these programs align with her leadership philosophy.
“Throughout my journey, I’ve been fortunate to have incredible mentors and supporters who share their knowledge and experiences with me, and I believe that it’s my responsibility to do the same for emerging leaders,” she said.
“I want to take moment to acknowledge those who have played a significant role in shaping my CFA journey. Brian Williams, my first Captain set a strong foundation for me. Graeme Bourne offered unwavering support during my early captaincy days. Lex de Man for his support to establish and develop Hillcrest, while Geoff Conway and Graeme Armstrong provided exceptional leadership and guidance. Both Don Bigham and Roly Rak challenged and supported me, pushing me to grow in ways I hadn’t imagined and seek opportunity to enhance our local brigades’ capacity and capability,”
“Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank my mum, none of us can volunteer without the unwavering support of our loved ones, and her encouragement and support has been a cornerstone of my journey”
As a mentor, Ms Burns encourages diversity and opportunity to the women of CFA and is helping to future-proof CFA by developing a pool of future leaders to replace those currently holding leadership roles.
She has been a CFA trainer and assessor since 2013 and continues to combine her practical skills and knowledge to deliver training in District 13 on General Firefighter, Low Structure and Introduction to AIIMS courses, as well as leading skills maintenance and specialised bushfire training for brigades in the group and other local brigades.
Ms Burns said she continues to train and assess as they all started their CFA journey as a recruit and it is important that members can see a leadership pathway all the way from recruit to lieutenant, captain and group officer.
“I believe that a key tenet of leadership is about helping others to achieve personal growth, build their self-confidence and overcome challenges. By sharing my experiences and insights, I hope to inspire others to realise their potential and contribute meaningfully to CFA and beyond,” she said.
“I gain as much from the people I mentor as they get from me. It’s not a one-way street. It is seeing young people and newer members take on leadership roles like lieutenants or captains – especially when they initially doubted their ability to do so – gives me a real buzz.”
Ms Burns has made significant contributions to community safety and education. She is a founding committee member of the Yarra Valley Teenage Road Information Program (TRIP), and has been the chair of TRIP for the past six years. TRIP is presented by people who have lived the experience of a road crash. It includes all the emergency services agencies who attend a crash and have to deal with the resulting devastation. It’s a hard-hitting program that’s delivered in a funeral home.
Ms Burn said TRIP is her passion.
“It is primarily aimed at 16 to 25-year-olds because statistics show they have more accidents,” she said.
“The program is designed to be thought-provoking and initiate conversations between mates and families about making good decisions while driving. There are consequences to decisions drivers make. For every road fatality about 800 people are impacted.”
Along with TRIP, Fiona is an ongoing advocate of creating links to local Yarra Valley community groups that has ensured the development of more integrated emergency preparedness and response planning processes between Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Victoria State Emergency Service, local government, community groups and the local schools.
Post Black Saturday, Ms Burns recognised that some lives were lost by people who tried to stay and rescue their pets. The Grab and Go Pet Bag was developed as a result of a local school art competition and are reusable calico bags with a checklist for evacuating pet owners and Ms Burns found it an ‘absolute delight’ to present a framed Grab & Go Pet Bag to the winning student and school at their assembly.
