Fire up now!

By Jim Mynard
HARKAWAY residents must do something about fire protection before it is too late.
Edrington Ward councillor Brian Hetherton said this last week and added that the area must be adequately prepared and protected.
He has called a public meeting to be held in the Harkaway Hall at 7pm on Monday, 16 October to discuss the matter.
Cr Hetherton said planning for fire protection should be well started because it would be too late to start planning in the summer months.
“The Premier has already warned Victoria about the fire danger we face on a wide scale because of the drought conditions,” he said.
“We already have had fires, one in the Pakenham area, with a fire season that has started at an unprecedented early date.”
Cr Hetherton arranged a series of meetings in May in response to a call from former Berwick councillor Warwick Glendenning to have more water points provided in the Harkaway area.
But despite the recognition that a problem existed no leader has emerged from the area to continue the fire prevention planning.
Cr Hetherton said the Country Fire Authority (CFA) would address the meeting and explain its fire protection plan.
“We need to be planning now,” he said.
Berwick Fire Brigade captain Alan Boyd said community education officer Rebecca Mouy would explain the ‘fireready plan’.
“Ms Mouy will discuss the need for people to take ownership of their own situation.
“There will not always be someone else there to do it,” he said.
One complaint at the previous meetings was that no assistance was available for people during the Ash Wednesday fires, but Captain Boyd said this should be overcome by preplanning.
Mr Glendenning said the government had already warned that we could be moving toward a high danger fire season.
And CFA chief Russell Rees said on Monday that prolonged drought and an expected warm, dry spring could spell a disastrous fire season.
Mr Rees said every indicator was that we were in for a critical fire season.
He said ground water was already depleted.
He asked Victorians to prepare their bushfire plans early.
“We will only get through this fire season with minimal losses if we act in partnership, and that partnership is all the fire services and all the government agencies working together.
“But the critical partnership is that we have with the community,” he said.
One of the assurances given at the Harkaway meetings was that several dams and tanks existed in the area, but Mr Glendenning then warned they might not be well stocked for this summer.
Captain Boyd said the Narre Warren North and Narre Warren Fire Brigades would also be represented at the meeting.