But the public also expects a reasonable level of emergency protection in return for taxes paid.

So residents living east of the Macquarie River have every right to be asking if they were exposed to unnecessary danger on Sunday when their local fire station was taken “offline” for a number of hours.

The firefighters’ union has told the Western Advocate that the Kelso fire station was taken offline on Sunday because not enough retained staff can be found to make it safely operational.

Four retained firefighters are needed to safely respond to any incidents. If the number of available staff falls below this number, then the station is taken offline.

If there is a serious fire during these times, then residents are relying on trucks and staff from the 24-hour fire station in West Bathurst to respond.

Naturally, this means longer response times and every minute is crucial in the case of fire, particularly house fires where residents might be trapped inside.

In response, fire brigade management says the area’s fire protection was not compromised as two retained staff were available to respond to any local calls and the 24-hour fire station at Bathurst could have provided the necessary support.

Thankfully, there were no major blazes on the day so the capacity to respond was not tested.

But that was more a result of good luck than anything else, particularly on a day when a total fire ban had been issued for the Bathurst region.

Given those conditions, it’s hard to justify a management decision not to bring in extra resources for Kelso to cover the shortage of staff for a single day.

No one wants to see wasted wages, but nor does a total fire ban day seem to be the right time for a little bureaucratic belt-tightening.