The fears come after Wagga City Council relaxed its blanket 25 metre height restriction for the CBD, paving the way for projects such as the 32-metre building planned for Morgan Street.

However, Fire Brigade Employees Union country representative Tim Anderson said Turvey Park's station's current gear were only able reach heights of up to 15 metres - about five storeys.

"If something fails and the sprinkler system doesn't work or the water's been shut off for whatever reason, then unfortunately if those people are unable to evacuate and they're relying on firefighters to get them down, our gear won't reach them," Mr Anderson said.

"It's up to council and the community of Wagga to demand that that level of fire protection is provided, but the issue is the government we've got at the moment believes that NSW stands for Newcastle, Sydney, and Wollongong.

"They don't seem to care too much about what happens in all the other areas of NSW and we're treated as second class citizens, which is why we get [old second-hand] engines in the fire brigade."

IN OTHER NEWS:

While Wagga's firetrucks have "telesquirts" which can extend up to 15 metres, metropolitan trucks have state-of-the-art "brontos" which can go up to 50 metres, change angles to read hard-to-reach-places, and have a cage for added safety.

Council's development assessment and building construction manager Paul O'Brien said there were rules in place to ensure tall buildings were fire safe.

"The National Construction Code 2019 contains a range of provisions which recognise the effective operating height for fire brigade ladders and other fire-fighting and rescue equipment," he said.

"This includes additional requirements for buildings with an effective height of greater than 25m, including the number of exits required from each storey, fire isolation of exists and paths of travel, sprinkler protection, dual water supply for those systems, provision of dedicated lifts to aid emergency services."

The Daily Advertiser asked Emergency Services Minister David Elliott for a response and was referred to a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman.

"Turvey Park has the most appropriate appliance to meet the current community needs. Fire and Rescue NSW continually assesses and reviews the allocation of appliances as part of its standard operational practices," the spokesman said.

"FRNSW firefighters are trained in high-rise firefighting techniques and can respond to incidents in medium and high-rise developments efficiently and effectively without an aerial firefighting truck."

However a Turvey Park firefighter, who shall remain anonymous, rejected the claim that they were appropriately equipped to meet community needs.

He said they were chronically understaffed with only three firefighters and one station officer rostered on at any one time, combined with a "chronic" shortage of on-call firefighters to provide backup in times of need.

The firefighter said they desperately needed more permanent and retained staff on their rosters, which had not seen a meaningful increase since 1981.

He also said they were lacking a full-time Hazmat truck and crew, and that they needed more training for dealing with clean-up operations.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: