Copy of letter received by email 5 August 2016
All correspondence to: The Chairman
Email: captain@stoneville.bfb.asn.au
To: Chief Executive Officer,
Shire of Mundaring.
Dear Mr Throssell.
We are writing to you to request that the Shire of Mundaring represent to the Government of West Australia to implement the recommendations of the Special Inquiry into the January 2016 Waroona Fire.
Introduction.
This request is made by the combined Captains and Fire Control Officers of the Bush Fire Service in Mundaring.
This group consists of the;
• 4 Volunteer Deputy Chief Bushfire Control Officers,
• 9 Volunteer Bushfire Brigade Captains,
• 10 Volunteer Bushfire Control officers,
• Volunteer Fire and rescue service Captain and First Lieutenant,
• Senior representatives from the Mundaring Fire Training School, Volunteers.
Together this group provides training, preparation and operational and tactical direction to approximately 450 ordinary community members who volunteer their time to train, prepare and respond to the risk of fire.
These 450 volunteers operate 20 fire appliances operating from 10 purely volunteer fire stations and we are very active in all areas relating to the treatment of fire threat, including risk reduction, response, suppression and incident management.
Although we predominately respond to fire and other emergencies in the Shire of Mundaring, our resources and people are often called to assist in incidents in other LG areas.
The Perth Rural/Urban interface area of the Darling Scarp in the Perth Hills is an area of high bush fire risk with many assets exposed to threat in the event of fire. Wildfire behaviour in this region can be very severe and devastating. It is amongst the highest area of risk to assets in W.A.
We have been preparing and responding to this risk for a very long time, with most of our volunteer brigades now formally established for more than 50 years. Prior to this there exist a long history of community members banding together to respond to, and combat bushfires across the Shire since the establishment of settlements during the 19th century.
We consider our people to be very knowledgeable, experienced and indeed formally qualified in bushfire matters, particularly in the Perth Hills, and that we are consequently able to provide informed and expert comment and review of matters relating to bushfire. However, our members hold the general view that the major fire agency, DFES, doesn’t acknowledge, nor recognise this knowledge and experience when it comes to the management of fire operations.
Special Inquiry into the January 2016 Waroona Fire
In relation to the Inquiry into the Waroona fire, we advise you that our members have already participated in many reviews into major fire incidents, at various levels.
We note that previous reviews into major fires, including those by Mr Keelty and by the SEMC, have made many recommendations with which we generally agree, especially those related to bush fire management and risk mitigation.
However, we note that not all of those recommendations have been implemented and our general view is that, consequently, there has been very little real change to the threat profiles for communities in rural-urban interface and rural environments.
Many of the problems identified at the Waroona fire were very similar to the problems encountered at the Parkerville/Stoneville/Mount Helena fire.
We believe that the current focus by DFES to provide only a response puts little or no emphasis on risk identification and its mitigation (treatment of that risk). That translates into an increase in bushfire related risk to our community that is very real. The Waroona-Yarloop fire is the latest example of that.
Discussion
There is now, more than ever before, a real need to implement change that will overcome the many difficulties, if not barriers, we see related to bush fire risk mitigation and fire management. Should the current attitudes, structure and environment remain, then research into fire frequency and distribution within and adjacent to rural-urban interface environments suggests that an increasingly major negative impact on our community can be expected. This needs to be addressed, but it cannot within the framework that currently exists.
At our regular operational meeting held 3 August 2016, our members indicated unanimously that they have studied the report of the special inquiry into the January 2016 Waroona Fire and these have also been discussed in depth at local Volunteer Brigade meetings in Mundaring.
Our unanimous, collective view is that;
• The report is very accurate and portrays the situation with West Australian bush fire management very well.
• The report’s recommendations are very sound and we support the implementation of these completely.
• The existing bush fire management regime has many shortcomings and if left unchanged, the risk of bushfire catastrophe will continue to increase.
• We have had many bush fire enquiries, with the resulting recommendations not being implemented. This has a consequence that is measured by an increase in risk.
Conclusion
There have been enough reports containing recommendations that are seemingly repeated without substantive action. We believe that, in the interests of supporting and protecting our community, it is now time to act and make the changes required to achieve a positive outcome for the Shire’s residents.
We therefore most sincerely ask that the Shire of Mundaring support our position through formally representing our views to the West Australian Government, both for their consideration and action.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Taylor
Chairperson.
Mundaring Volunteer Fire Control Officers and Captains Group.
Date 5 August 2016