Fire blame game not the best way forward

December 14, 2011

West Australian, Page: 20
By John Iffla
Tuesday, 13 December 2011


JOHN IFFLA WAs communities need to learn from the major bushfires that have destroyed so many homes this year.

Continuation of what has become a very public blame game will ultimately result in many of the State’s most capable career and volunteer fire managers becoming hesitant to make vital decisions during very difficult and challenging situations.

Inevitably in such stressful and time crucial circumstances not all decisions will be perfect and the community must support the agencies and individuals who take responsibility for protecting them against bushfires.

Let’s leave it to the current inquiry to find out what, if an~ mistakes were made during the Margaret River and Augusta fires and then let the agencies involved learn from that otherwise the experienced and capable career and volunteer fire fighters, particularly the volunteers on whom we rely so heavily will be reluctant to take on incident management responsibilities, leaving our communities even more vulnerable.

In the meantime, all communities must get involved in trying to prevent such events re-occurring. And that requires a co-ordinated effort by everyone who lives in or owns property in areas that may potentially be affected by bushfire. It has been demonstrated time and time again that during serious fire conditions there will be very little that firefighters can do to help if communities and residents have not undertaken adequate measures before the fire season. - And we can’t afford to leave it all up to local government, the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Fire and Emergency Services Authority community members need to get involved.

A few well prepared properties may not be defendable if the neighbours have not done the right thing and if the community has not supported its local government and bushfire brigade to undertake fuel load management strategies around the town site. Some people who have lost homes have stated that they had their properties fire-ready but unless the whole community takes such measures, the firefighters have little hope of saving even these houses.

Volunteers who attended the Margaret River fire reported that the time and resources required to save an unprepared house meant that they were too late to safeguard well-prepared properties that could have been saved with far less effort.

Other firefighters have expressed dismay at the lack of action by some owners, saying they are fed up with risking their safety to save houses that owners have made no effort to make fire-ready listing gutters clogged with leaves, high fuel loads around the house and trees overhanging the roof Yet some WA communities have shown that it is not that difficult to become more fire ready Firstly there is a vast amount of information available to guide individual owners on how to make their home more resilient to bushfire such as simple tasks of making a hazard separation zone around the house by appropriate planting and garden design and removing flammable materials, to guides on how to retrofit your house at minimal cost to make it less susceptible to ember attack. Then there are the local Bush Fire Ready Action Groups that are established with the assistance of FESA to enable neighbours to work together to be fire ready Getting to know your neighbours and educating them on their responsibilities is an important component of your own fire protection strategy but if this fails there are also legal requirements for landowners to reduce fire risks that can be enforced if necessary But the most valuable action is for community members to get involved with their local fire and emergency services brigades because an active and well supported brigade can undertake very effective fire mitigation work in a safe and co-ordinated manner on both public and private land.

Together with assistance from the DEC and FESA, local brigades can plan for and undertake controlled burning programs to reduce fuel loads in and around towns and settlements, making them defendable against bushfire.

But the benefits are far wider, as the opportunities to work together in a controlled burn situation will establish good working relationships that are so vital in an emergency situation. It also provides invaluable training opportunities for volunteer firefighters, both for new recruits and for developing incident management skills of the more experienced volunteers.

The responsibility for improving WA communities’ fire resilience therefore lies with everyone, and the best outcomes will only be achieved if everyone undertakes to do their bit.

As a society we must stop the incessant desire to find someone to blame when things go wrong, so that when fires do occur they can be analysed objectively and appropriately We cannot afford to lose experienced firefighting personnel through threat of condemnation by uninformed and unknowledgeable opinions.

John Iffla is the president of the Emergency Services Volunteers Association