The report of an independent review of the circumstances surrounding January’s devastating bushfire on the Lower Eyre Peninsula has been tabled in State Parliament.
Emergency Services Minister Carmel Zollo has tabled the report prepared by eminent Victorian forestry expert Dr Bob Smith, who was commissioned by the Rann Government to review a range of issues surrounding the fire, which swept through the region on January 10th and 11th.
The Minister responsible for the West Coast Bushfire Recovery, Patrick Conlon, has travelled to Port Lincoln to release the report to local councils, the Lower Eyre Peninsula community and other key stakeholders.
The fire claimed nine lives, and destroyed or severely damaged more than 90 homes, 370 sheds or commercial buildings, 35 vehicles, 139 farm machines, 6,300 kilometres of fencing, and more than 46,000 head of livestock.
Issues surrounding the fire have been the subject of a range of inquiries, including the Country Fire Service’s internal review Project Phoenix, and a Police investigation on behalf of the State Coroner. A Coronial Inquest into the fire is scheduled to begin next month.
Dr Smith was asked to research and make recommendations on several matters, including:
- Prevention and Mitigation activities; preparedness and response by individuals, the community, organisations and statutory authorities
- The use of firefighting aircraft
- The actions taken by Local Government prior to and during the fires
- The impact of roadside vegetation in relation to the fires
- The role of Police during the fire, including their capacity to control access to affected areas during the fires
- Issues arising from the behaviour and progression of the fire originating at Wangary.
Dr Smith’s report includes 31 recommendations covering the topics outlined in his terms of reference, and Minister Zollo says they will provide an opportunity for the Government to consider any policy, legislative or resourcing changes that could enhance safety for South Australians.
Minister Zollo says the Country Fire Service and the Government are already acting upon a number of Dr Smith’s recommendations, saying that “The CFS is on schedule to implement key changes before the forthcoming fire danger season, including a review and upgrading of all CFS operations management plans, and the implementation of a new bushfire information and warning system.”
The State Government has agreed to increase aerial firefighting funds by $2.4 million over four years. Ms Zollo said that "The extra funding will allow the Country Fire Service to engage additional aircraft as required for Statewide firebombing operations – especially in the State’s West Coast and South East regions. CFS management is currently completing negotiations for this summer’s aerial firefighting arrangements, and an announcement will be made soon.”
Some of the findings of Dr Smith’s independent review include:
“The progression of the Wangary Bushfire identified short comings in the failure of the three levels of control and coordination management in the CFS to assess and incorporate into decision making processes the potential impacts of the extreme fire danger weather forecast for Tuesday 11th January on the behaviour of the Wangary fire. The Incident Management Team’s decision-making processes associated with the Wangary Bushfire appears to have concentrated on achieving an expected and routine outcome…. Information from the Incident Management Teams was taken at face value by the Regional Coordination Centre and State Coordination Centre. No process to test the veracity of the information and intelligence from the fireground or formally incorporated strategic threat assessment were undertaken.”
“The Review did not find any evidence of active failure by individuals or groups of individuals in applying the operational policies of the Country Fire Service (CFS) in managing the Wangary Bushfire.”
“These extreme fire danger weather conditions experienced on Monday afternoon and significantly increasing on Tuesday generated conditions where any on-going bushfire would be considered uncontrollable.”
And;
“The early intervention of the whole of government approach to managing the recovery process, with the leadership provided by an on ground Minister of the South Australian Government, acting with the authority of Cabinet, greatly assisted in delivering timely and positive recovery results for individuals, the community, businesses and the environment.”
“The whole of government approach, strongly supported by a wide variety of community based welfare an service organisations, and sustained over the longer term, provides a best practice model for the management of the recover process.”
Media release here
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