The inquiry into the 2026 Victorian bushfires is beginning to peel back the vulnerabilities in our emergency services system.

Our senior CFA volunteers say the current state of the CFA is setting them up to fail, leaving them incapacitated when disaster strikes.

The testimonies of those impacted by the bushfires - residents, firefighters and frontline workers - are highlighting the irreparable trauma and loss that arises when emergency services are incapacitated.

Their stories are just a glimpse into the consequences of being under-resourced and overlooked for far too long.

The consequences are a chronic, never-ending shortage of leadership roles, the glue of the team in times of urgency.

It's the a result of of the quiet loss of government-funded training introduced following the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.

A result of volunteers having to make exceptional, unwarranted commitments.

And the state government's $148.6m investment into the CFA, albeit welcomed, can't atone for the inevitable future harm afflicted onto communities when the next disaster strikes, nor does it root out the problems associated with the CFA's lack of resources.

As Wangaratta CFA group officer Lachie Gales said, the provision of tanker fleets and equipment is relevant, but none of it is any use if there's nobody to lead it.

Rather than bandaid solutions, the inquiry is a step forward in what CFA volunteers actually want from the government: to be listened to and to act accordingly.

Resilience only goes so far, and the hard fact is these system failures will produce the same anger, grief, frustration and loss from volunteers and their communities when another the inevitable next disaster eventuates.