'Cultural crisis': Volunteer firefighters suspended over incident involving teen girl
Four firefighters have been suspended amid claims the Country Fire Authority has a "cultural crisis" on its hands after a video emerged of male volunteers victimising a teenage girl at a country fire station.
The clip shows the 17-year-old girl being grabbed by the hair and thrown to the floor at Bendigo's Eaglehawk fire station before being kicked, dragged under a fire truck and sprayed with sprinklers.
Several volunteers, including the girl's 19-year-old brother, were present at the time but no one intervened.
All 50 volunteers of the station will be interviewed, including captain Hayden Allen who was present at the time.
He took to Facebook on Wednesday to suggest there was more to the incident than has been reported.
"My name has been tarnished throughout the media today." he wrote.
"But like all things there is (sic) two sides to every story and unfortunately we just have to ride the wave."
But the CFA's CEO Frances Diver suggested there was a "cultural problem" among the firefighters.
"That tells you that there's a cultural problem in that brigade that somehow people think this is acceptable behaviour," she said.
Emergency Services Minister James Merlino echoed Diver's sentiments, labelling the country firefighters' actions as "disgusting" and "appalling".
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It is understood the girl doesn't want to take the matter further with investigations in the hands now in the CFA.
The four individuals remain suspended pending the outcome of the review and have since been cleared by police.
