A manufacturer's maintenance worker damaged an ACT aerial firefighting appliance during routine works, which the firefighters' union warns leaves a gap in the territory's ability to respond to emergencies.
But Emergency Services Agency acting commissioner Jason Jones said no one was injured and there would be impact to community safety.
"ACT Fire & Rescue remains well equipped to respond to emergencies. Access to workshops has not been impacted. ACT ESA advised WorkSafe ACT of the incident and a WorkSafe ACT investigation is underway," Mr Jones said.
A staff member employed by Rosenbauer, the company which built the 42-metre appliance, damaged the equipment during routine testing late on Thursday afternoon at the Emergency Service Agency's Fairbairn workshops.
Rosenbauer spokesman Tiemon Kiesenhofer confirmed the B-42 rescue platform had been damaged due to "an individual operation error of a Rosenbauer employee in the course of maintenance works".
"[Although] Information at hand [shows] the single cause of the incident was a human mistake we will also review our procedures," Mr Kiesenhofer said.
"We apologise to the customer for the inconvenience. We are working flat out to repair the rescue platform. The cost of the repair will be borne by Rosenbauer."
United Firefighters Union ACT secretary Greg McConville said the damage to the aerial appliance temporarily reduced the options firefighters had at their disposal when responding to incidents in the territory.
"This does create a capability gap," Mr McConville said.
The Canberra Times understands the Bronto appliance was trapped behind the damaged Rosenbauer equipment, but the Emergency Services Agency did not directly respond to a question about the location of the Bronto equipment and whether access to it had been impeded.
Mr Jones said only that access to workshops had not been affected as a result of the incident, and Canberrans could be fully confident Fire & Rescue's ability to maintain community safety while the Rosenbauer appliance was out of service.
"ACT [Fire & Rescue] business continuity plans ensure it can maintain operational capability in the face of appliance downtime," he said.
"The 24-metre CAPA aerial appliance is available, and the 44-metre Bronto aerial appliance will be back online shortly after undergoing maintenance."
The Rosenbauer 42-metre aerial appliance can support up to five people in a rescue cage at the end of its hydraulic arm. It entered service in the ACT in 2020, and cost $2.2 million.
