The Premier John Brumby today called on all Victorians to be prepared and on alert as the state enters a bushfire season experts predict will be as bad, or worse, than the last season in which 173 people tragically lost their lives and more than 2000 properties were destroyed.
Mr Brumby said unprecedented resources were being deployed to the firefighting effort, with 700 seasonal firefighters to join 2700 Department of Sustainability (DSE) fire staff and 59,000 Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers, including 3100 that have joined since Black Saturday.
The largest-ever firefighting effort is being backed by a record emergency services budget of more than $700 million, nearly triple 10 years ago.
Skycranes Elvis and Elsie will be deployed with back-up support from 32 aircraft with a further 170 aircraft on standby for a bushfire emergency. The DSE has fuel reduced 15,000 hectares in the past four months, building on 400,000 hectares of fuel burns on public land in three years. Fire authorities have been able to do the most effective fuel reduction burning in the Otways in 30 years.
“We all need to work together to prepare our families, our homes, our communities and ourselves to be as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible so that lives can be protected,” Mr Brumby said.
“We live in one of the world’s most fire prone areas and all Victorians – no matter where they live or what their fire experience has been – need to prepare. None of us can afford to be complacent.
“Fire is not just a threat in the country. Melbourne’s suburbs are also at risk. We know that burning embers can travel 20 kilometres or more ahead of a fire, starting scrub and grass fires on their way. We also know many people caught in last season’s bushfires were on holidays or work trips.
“That’s why I am urging all Victorians to get fire-ready – identify your risk if you’ve not done so already, prepare a fire plan and practise it, clean up your properties and get involved in your local fire preparation activities.”
Mr Brumby was joined today by Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron, Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings and fire agencies at the CFA’s State Logistics Centre in Knoxfield to launch the start of Victoria’s fire season.
The centre dispatches equipment in bushfire emergencies across Victoria and in the February fires sent out 550,000 water bottles, 198,000 hydrate bottles, 31,000 facemasks, and 5900 energy snack packs, 5800 pairs of gloves, 6100 goggles, 2100 sets of wildfire clothing and 1440 lengths of hose.
It is currently stocked with 250,000 face masks, 2000 helmets, 28,000 water bottles, 72,000 bottles of hydrate, 2000 pairs of goggles and 1000 lengths of hose in preparation for the first fires.
Mr Brumby said the Victorian Government and its fire agencies were rolling out unprecedented new fire preparation measures across Victoria, which include:
- A new national fire danger rating system, with a new category for Code Red (Catastrophic) to warn communities of the risk of fires that are unpredictable, uncontrollable and fast moving;
- Warnings which will be able to be delivered to fixed and mobile phones (based on a billing address) through a new National Emergency Warning System (NEWS);
- A Standard Emergency Warning Signal that will interrupt media broadcasts before potentially life threatening fires;
- New procedures for schools and children’s services on Code Red (catastrophic) days;
- A new ‘10/30 right’ which allows landowners to clear vegetation on their own property with 10 metres of a house and ground fuel within 30 metres of a house without a permit;
- Upgrades to 43 Level 3 incident control centres across Victoria with the newest technologies, with 16 to be completed by the end of this month, 21 by the end of this year and a further six to be completed by the middle of next year;
- A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with about 30 of the state’s commercial radio broadcasters to become official emergency broadcasters which covers stations in Melbourne and regional Victoria as well as an agreement with Sky News television; and
- Significant additional resources for the fire preparation and firefighting effort, including the first-ever dedicated statewide Fire Action Week.
Testing of the National Emergency Warning System will begin tomorrow. Further testing will occur in coming weeks, ahead of full-scale community testing towards the end of next month. The system will begin operation in December.
Mr Cameron said the CFA’s 59,000 volunteers had been preparing for the fire season for months, implementing changes and training large numbers of staff and volunteers about those changes.
“Our Government has moved quickly to implement significant measures and improvements for the fire season,” Mr Cameron said.
“Victoria’s firefighters are well-equipped, well-trained and stand ready to protect Victorian communities this fire season. They are being supported by a record firefighting budget and resources.
“They will also be supported by 67 fire lookout towers across the state as well as 17 airstrips with fire bombing bases, six mobile retardant mixing centres and three mobile base camp modules.”
Mr Jennings said the DSE had been taking every opportunity to safely conduct fuel reduction burns but that conditions across Victorian remained dry, despite the recent rain.
“After 13 years of drought, combined with the impact of climate change conditions are dry and we all need to be prepared for an intense fire season which fire experts are predicting will be at least as bad, if not worse than the season we’ve just experienced,“ Mr Jennings said.
“That preparation includes the employment of Project Fire Fighters by DSE with over 330 already deployed across the state and all 700 to be on the ground by the start of summer.”
The Victorian Government has provided record resources to the state’s fire agencies and emergency services, with more than $5 billion invested into the CFA, Metropolitan Fire Brigade, DSE and State Emergency Service since 1999.
The combined annual budgets of the emergency services have nearly tripled, up from $255 million in 1999 to $704.6 million in 2008-09, an increase of 176 per cent.
The 2009 State Budget provided $986 million for the firefighting and reconstruction effort including;
- $56.2 million for the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority to improve its capacity to manage calls and dispatch units;
- $57.1 million to purchase new radios and upgrade radio and pager networks used by SES and CFA – building on $450 million investment in communications since 2000; and
- $33.2 million to upgrade DSE pagers and radios; 21.1 million to replace 87 CFA appliances, $10.3 million to replace 15 heavy rescue vehicles, 7 four wheel drive vehicles, 9 rescue boats and 11 road crash rescue kits at VICSES units and $10.3 million for 42 ultra light tankers.