Bushfires royal commission uncovers more lessons
The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission has continued to uncover systemic failures in the response of emergency services on Black Saturday.
As commissioners convened for a fifth week of public hearings, it was revealed Country Fire Authority (CFA) captains at Kinglake, Arthurs Creek and Marysville had no information about the progress of fires that would devastate those communities.
CFA Chief Officer Russell Rees told commissioners he was “disappointed and at a loss to explain why they didn’t have, or couldn’t access, the information that they desired”.
Mr Rees rejected the suggestion that public warnings were given a lower priority than fighting fires on Black Saturday, citing the unpredictable progress of the fires.
He claimed the Integrated Emergency Co-ordination Centre in Melbourne worked well on February 7, telling the royal commission, “We had system failures but we had system successes”.
Mr Rees cited a fire at Upper Ferntree Gully as one example, saying if the fire had progressed through the Dandenong Ranges the scope for fatalities was tremendous.
Appearing for the Victorian Government, Neil Clelland SC said in some cases the system “worked fantastically”.
But the royal commission also heard that although a joint Department of Sustainability and Environment and CFA response unit sat together in the emergency co-ordination centre, they had different resources – including two separate websites that in some cases produced conflicting information.
As commissioners convened for a fifth week of public hearings, it was revealed Country Fire Authority (CFA) captains at Kinglake, Arthurs Creek and Marysville had no information about the progress of fires that would devastate those communities.
CFA Chief Officer Russell Rees told commissioners he was “disappointed and at a loss to explain why they didn’t have, or couldn’t access, the information that they desired”.
Mr Rees rejected the suggestion that public warnings were given a lower priority than fighting fires on Black Saturday, citing the unpredictable progress of the fires.
He claimed the Integrated Emergency Co-ordination Centre in Melbourne worked well on February 7, telling the royal commission, “We had system failures but we had system successes”.
Mr Rees cited a fire at Upper Ferntree Gully as one example, saying if the fire had progressed through the Dandenong Ranges the scope for fatalities was tremendous.
Appearing for the Victorian Government, Neil Clelland SC said in some cases the system “worked fantastically”.
But the royal commission also heard that although a joint Department of Sustainability and Environment and CFA response unit sat together in the emergency co-ordination centre, they had different resources – including two separate websites that in some cases produced conflicting information.