Fuel has been thrown onto the fire in a fight between firefighters and the government agency which oversees them after allegations that hundreds of pedophiles and serious criminals were among their number.

Both rural volunteers and their professional counterparts have described as false and misleading the claims that 200 firefighters were booted out of their ranks and another 40 who applied for jobs were knocked back after failing to receive a Working With Children Card, otherwise known as a Blue Card.

Firefighters say those numbers apply to Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, a body which includes the SES as well as bureaucrats and all manner of support staff.

They also reject the allegation that a person who did not receive a Blue Card is necessarily a pedophile or serious criminal.    

The claims were aired in a Courier Mail article published Tuesday under the headline: ‘Fireys’ shame: 200 pedophile, criminal firefighters kicked out’.

United Firefighters Union Queensland general secretary John Oliver hit back the same day with a statement under the banner ‘Media article grossly misrepresents Blue Card statistics for “firies”.’

Mr Oliver wrote to members that the UFUQ worked to protect “your uniform, rank, insignia, the protection of the use of the red trucks, and so much more”.

“And it includes ensuring someone who is called a firefighter (or a firie) actually is one,” he wrote. 

“Today a media article grossly misrepresented the number of your colleagues who have failed to go through the Blue Card process, by mucking everyone who needs a Blue Card at QFES into a bucket and calling them all firies.”

“If you have seen the article, you all know how very wrong it is.”

Rural Fire Brigades Association Queensland’s general manager Justin Choveaux told the Guardian & Tribune the numbers cited in the article included “plenty of public servants” but also firefighting volunteers who had previously held blue cards but could not get them renewed as the serious offences category had changed.

“We've got brigade volunteers out there who for many years have been happily serving their community,” he said. 

“They may have had a drug conviction or an assault conviction in the past but that has nothing to do with children, and they've also been through the criminal justice system.”

 “If they needed to serve time, or make their amends, they have done that.”  

“Now they are being lumped in with pedophiles.”

The stoush has been flickering since early 2019 when QFES personnel were ordered to get a Blue Card.

They were originally given until December 2019 to comply, a deadline which was extended due to the catastrophic fires that summer and once again when Covid-19 hit.

The issue came to a head this month when rural firefighting volunteers who did not hold Blue Cards were told to hand in their uniforms.

As reported in the Guardian & Tribune last week, the new rules essentially left Mt French Rural Fire Brigade first officer Bruce Wagner without any frontline volunteers to defend his community.

But Queensland Police and Fire and Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan told the Courier Mail  his government made no apologies for the new rules. 

“The government is committed to keeping children safe,” he said. 

“That is the reason the Blue Card system was introduced.” 

“As at June 30, 40 people who had applied to join QFES had been knocked back because they received adverse findings on their Blue Card application,” Mr Ryan said. 

“The government makes no apologies for that.” 

“The priority is the safety of children.” 

“Around 200 QFES personnel also received adverse notices on their Blue Card applications.” 

“They have all been stood down or dismissed, and will remain so unless they are able to successfully appeal the Blue Card Services decision.”

The Brisbane-based newspaper reported about 2,000 volunteers had not applied for a Blue Card by the March 31 deadline, most of them volunteers.

The UFUQ general secretary said lumping “everyone together to sensationally say 200 firies have been sacked is either lazy, or deliberately demeaning to the respect and tradition” of firefighters.

But Mr Oliver pointed the finger at the source of the information, rather than the reporter of it.

“The blame for the error in the article lies at the feet of QFES due to what appears to be a deliberate decision to repeatedly blur the lines between a professional firefighter and all others who work, or volunteer, for QFES,” he said. 

He said that more than 99.5 percent of professional firefighter union members held a Blue Card, “with the remainder working through the process”.

RFBAQ’s general manager said QFES “created” the “emotive and polarising” story to “justify their position”.

Mr Choveaux last week submitted to an independent review into the government agency that it should be “dissolved”. He said the events of this week only reinforced that position.

“If you were to say, give me another reason why we should get rid of QFES, well we saw it this week,” he said.

“It was a terribly divisive conversation that didn't need to happen.”

The rural firefighter said he was not against mandatory Blue Cards, but the way the policy had been forced upon volunteer brigades.

Rather than sending threatening letters with demands, he said the government agency should have rolled out its policy over years by engaging with individual fire brigades and employing local training providers to help volunteers receive first aid training as well as obtain their Blue Cards.

“If you want to do this thing, do it a better way,” Mr Choveaux said.