Fire debate simmers

HARKAWAY is a fire death trap and something must be done to prevent heavy loss of life when a major fire hits that township.
But building so called ‘escape routes’ suggested by a small group of Harkaway people is not the way to prevent fatalities.
This has been a simmering issue for several years.
People insist on living in areas where there is bush, high trees with lots of foliage around, and I am one who does.
So there is a heavy price to pay, the potential loss of property to bushfire, and a high death toll.
I can’t see any way to prevent the loss of homes, fences, and outbuildings to fire unless extensive sprinkler systems are installed with large water storages, and that means high costs well out of reach for many people.
But I do not accept the loss of life that we had as a result of the Black Friday, Ash Wednesday, Black Saturday, and to a lesser extent lives lost in smaller fire events.
Harkaway has had two big close calls with the 2009 Narre Warren North fire and that of Ash Wednesday 1983.
Governments love inquiries and the Victorian Government is holding a bushfire royal commission into the Black Saturday fires.
Inquiries were also held into the Ash Wednesday fires, and the Black Friday bushfires.
The three fires started after remarkably similar weather patterns, combined with carelessness and arson, in addition to lightning strikes.
We’ve had inquiries, made some changes, but we are still losing lives.
The loss of buildings I can live with but I do not accept a situation where 30 or 40 people from a community die during one day and dozens of people die in cars trying to out-run fires.
This is a catastrophe above all expectations, an unacceptable loss, and a trauma on districts that I say should not happen again.
This type of event is something associated only with a major war.
Spending millions of dollars on escape routes is a way of giving people false security.
We already have adequate roads on which people can drive away from an area in an ordered manner.
But this needs to happen long before a fire front is near.
Evacuation of a complete township at the last minute is a stupid policy.
No matter what roads we have this will set up traffic grid-locks and tragedy.
What of the elderly, ill, and those without vehicles?
What happens if it is a school day and everyone turns up at the school to collect their children before heading into thick smoke and heavy traffic?
We must learn to live with the bush, but strictly on terms dictated by the bush because, despite its beauty and quietness, the bush is by far our master.
We also must find a way to stop arsonists.
Arsonists make evacuation less of an option because they choose the time and place to light fires and the burns spring up suddenly.
This eliminates the opportunity to warn residents.
People must have a means of protection that is immediate on or near their properties.
Forgive the broken record syndrome, but we must seriously look at fire shelters such as those proposed by Berwick life support engineer, Peter Weare.
These need to be properly designed and built in bushland properties.
America has tornado shelters from one end of the country to the other and Australia should have similar protection from fire.
The City of Casey, already under pressure to spend millions on road upgrades could better spend the money putting these shelters around the town, starting with the primary school.
Calls last week for Baker and Old Coach roads to be upgraded as escape routes worry me.
Money spent on these roads would easily cover the cost of having safe havens throughout Harkaway township.