Fuel reduction in the vast forests behind the communities along the Great Ocean Road have been neglected for decades.
How many disasters must we have, and how much public and private money needs to be spent, before we stop accepting a situation that can and should be avoided?
Stories like this one in the Australian are becoming way too frequent when the solution is low cost by comparison. These costs extend way beyond the public purse, there is a massive cost to our environment, local business and economy. A rethink of our hazard reduction targets is long overdue.
In reference to the article (The Australian – Dec 28, 2015) one of our readers said “Give the Volunteers back full control and get back to realistic hazard reduction targets. If a politician stepped up and made that decision, we’ll save lives, homes, our wildlife and heaps of money that could be better spent on hospital, infrastructure, the drug problem… the list goes on…”
The Volunteer Fire Fighters Association (VFFA) congratulates the NSW State Government on the news that an Emergency Services Property Levy will replace the current insurance based model.
This is a much fairer system of collecting funds for firefighting and state emergency services in NSW, it will spread the financial burden of the emergency services levy, and means that the majority of property owners will pay less.
Our Media Officer, Jon Russell spends some time “On Air” with Mel Millgate from Radio 2WEB – www.outbackradio.com.au
Mel asked Jon about the beginnings of the Volunteer Fire Fighters Association. They discussed the selection of magazine content, requests from VFFA members and the fact that many of our readers prefer a printed hard copy magazine.
Cootamundra pilot Scott Adams, of Adams Aerial Services, was furious when he was called out of the airspace above the fire at Stockinbingal by the Rural Fire Service (RFS), who say he was never requested to attend the fire which broke out on Yeo Yeo Hampstead Road.
He had the fire as good as out before anyone got to it and he called for a commonsense approach from the RFS when it comes to available resources, calling the move to stop Mr Adams waterbombing “bureaucratic nonsense”.
By Michael Eburn
One of our members who was previously not an officer of the brigade gained employment with the RFS and as part of his employment was given a staff rank that outranks any of the officers in the brigade.
This member has since informed us that he also carries that rank into his volunteer time with the brigade and that as a consequence he has to wear his staff rank to jobs with the brigade and if he is unhappy with the way an incident is being run by the brigade he has a legal obligation to take over control of the incident, and that he is the one that will be responsible if something goes wrong as he would be the senior officer on scene.
The Daily Telegraph loves a good story, big fires, a horror fire season ahead and now we have jumbo sized water bombers. They also allow public comment and so do we…
The New South Wales deputy coroner has been unable to determine the cause of the massive bushfire that burned in the Warrumbungle National Park in 2013. The fire started at Wambelong Campground near Coonabarabran in January 2013 and destroyed more than 50 homes, while burning 95 per cent of the National Park.
On Thursday 3rd June 1999, Andrew Clennell published an article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled: “Hollywood fire chief has too much power: councils”, many Volunteers have suggested that nothing has changed and it is getting worse.
VFFA President, Brian Williams talk to ABC’s Rural Country Hour Host, Michael Condon.
He said that the inquiry was conducted in a very methodical way, heard valuable testimony and was very balanced in the way it went about its business.
“The NSW Upper House inquiry made 29 recommendations to help avoid future bushfires across national parks and farmland.”
“The recommendations of the inquiry represent commonsense improvements to fire management.”