Why weren't people evacuated well beforehand? If the Australian public do not address this major issue, then more lives will be lost in the future" says CEO, 21st Century Education, Jamie McIntyre
I was in Fiji delivering a seminar when the Victorian Bushfire Disaster occurred and it wasn't until the morning after that I was informed of what had happened.
The Operations Manager of 21st Century Education emailed me to notify me of the severity of the Victorian bushfires and that they had directly affected one of our seminar participants' families.
My initial thought to this devastating news was that this family lost their house, however it was soon clarified, the entire family was killed. At this stage, over 100 people had been reported dead and entire towns had been wiped out.
My next question, why didn't the government evacuate the towns beforehand?
The Operations Manager, like most Australians, did not have the answer to this question.
I was in shock and happily made financial donations to assist the victims. After extreme devastation like this, recovering is the most important thing to focus on and it is imperative that we do not forget the victims in months to come but continue to offer ongoing support.
Approximately one week after the fires initially broke out and the death toll edged towards 200 with more detailed information regarding that fateful day being made available, the original question of why didn't the authorities evacuate the towns started to gnaw at me and thus I went in search of answers.
What I discovered made me incessantly angry because it appears many lives were lost unnecessarily due to poor leadership and lack of decisive decisions by those who were meant to be in charge.
I do not want to be pointing fingers and placing blame, however like every Australian I think I am more than entitled to ask some simple questions and demand answers.
The Integrated Emergency Co-ordination Centre of Docklands Melbourne, otherwise known as the "war room" or control room, consisted of leading fire-control authorities including the head of Country Fire Brigade (CFA), the Emergency Services and the Governments Chief Fire Officer, whose duty it was to effectively control the on ground defence against the Victorian bushfires.
It is fair to say that these authorities were accurate in their predictions of Black Saturday with the worst extreme fire danger alert in Victoria's history and temperatures expected to reach 44.5 degrees (however temperatures hit 46.5 degrees), with a wind change expected in the late afternoon.
However, these predictions were sadly not followed up with decisive action when it counted.
For instance, it was reported that the Kinglake fire commenced around 11.30am and it quickly spread to be a dangerous, out-of-control fire.
The first towns were destroyed around 4.30pm in the Kinglake district.
Some towns had only one fire engine and some even had none, as many CFA volunteers and fire fighters had fled to fight other fires when their own home towns were hit by the fires.
Local CFA volunteers, were working under intense conditions with little help from the control room or "war room". These volunteers said that even if we had 50 fire trucks we wouldn't have stopped the fires destroying the initial towns.
By 4.30pm or shortly thereafter, local CFA crew on the ground knew that the fires were extreme and towns had no chance to fight against them.
My question is why weren't all other towns in the area evacuated immediately?
In the instance of a flood, when nearby towns are threatened, people are simply evacuated or warned to be ready. Escaping a flood is also arguably more manageable in comparison to fires, as residents can sit on the roof of their house and generally survive. However fires like the Victorian Bushfires leave residents with virtually no chance of survival.
Many of the other towns were not destroyed by the fires until after 4.30pm, including Marysville which was hit close to 6pm.
But still no mass evacuations?
When minutes can save lives, in this case, some towns had over an hour to be evacuated. Yet what instructions come from the 'so-called' control centre in Docklands Melbourne?
Little or none?
Actually the control room admitted they didn't even know until 8.57pm Saturday night that any towns or lives had been lost and only 14 lives at this time had been reported lost, when the toll we now know is over 200.
The very people in charge didn't know what was going on, specifically in the hardest hit towns, until up to 3.5 hours after they had been destroyed.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that is appalled by this when so many lives could have been saved.
It is important to note that I am not blaming the control room for the fires.
Suspected causes of the fires include, lightning, arson, falling telegraph lines and cigarette butts in combination with a severe heat wave. However, it appears that a lot more could have been actioned by the authorities during this time of crisis.
No doubt everyone was working under stressful conditions and were limited to what they could do but the control room clearly failed to act in time.
The Integrated Emergency Co-ordination Centre has provided several excuses in defence of the devastating outcome.
Excuse 1: The policy in the past has been to leave early or stay and defend your property. Statistically - this has been a proven policy.
Sounds to me like the authorities are covering up their incompetence.
Why?
At approximately 4.30pm local CFA crews on site knew the severity of this fire. This was no ordinary fire, but rather it was extremely dangerous. Entire communities were being wiped out, which would suggest that people attempting to stay and protect their homes were left with virtually no hope.
Given the severity of the situation, this would imply an immediate policy review and mass evacuations across threatened towns.
Excuse 2: We couldn't get the information in a timely manner.
Why on earth not?
A "war room" must know what is happening in the field to be in control. They clearly were not in control or even prepared to act decisively.
Do they accept they were responsible for coordinating actions? It appears not.
Even people 3000kms away listening to the ABC radio, knew more than the control room.
It wasn't until 8.57pm on the Saturday evening that the Control room found out the extent of the damage to towns such as Marysville - hours too late to act.
It seems only common sense that the control room know where the fires were and where they were heading, and if they didn't, all the more reason to have people in surrounding towns evacuated.
If in doubt get people out.
Excuse 3: The communications system was overloaded.
Maybe it was the communications network that was overloaded (which is a failure in itself) but you cannot tell me a phone call could not have been made to local crew or police on the ground for an evacuation plan to be enforced.
"This is bad. Whole towns have been destroyed. Nothing will stop it. Get people out now. Mass evacuate."
Excuse 4: Even if we wanted to evacuate the threatened towns, we don't have the $20 million phone system to pre-warn the residents.
This is not good enough.
I can pick up the phone and record a voice message and send it to 100,000 Australians within minutes or even to people within targeted areas. Why can't the government do that?
Mass evacuation messages were even ordered via radio and TV mediums and people were warned to vacate certain regions and if they could spread the word or if they know anyone in the threatened areas please tell them to leave asap.
Many survivors have complained they were given no or little warning.
Admittedly some were informed and ignored the warning but a forceful evacuation order could have saved more lives.
Excuse 5: We don't have the authority for compulsory evacuation.
Maybe this policy should be reviewed in the near future so that mass evacuations can be enforced. However, if our authorities were sterner with their decisions and recommendations it possibly could have influenced a lot more people to leave.
Plus, by telling people the gravity of the bushfires such as informing them how other towns nearby have been wiped out and the severity and speed of this fire, it may depict the danger residents face if they decide to stay and defend their house.
Excuse 6: The wind changed direction and we didn't know it would take those towns.
This is not good enough. The weather forecast actually predicted the wind to change direction, and we need to prepare for the possibility that the wind can change direction.
If in doubt get people out.
Excuse 7: It must be climate change and global warming causing the extreme fires.
This statement is not yet conclusive and therefore is irrelevant.
Regardless of how extreme the fire was many people that died would have had a better chance of survival if they were given even a few minutes extra warning. Some towns could have had nearly 90 minutes warning but instead, they received nothing.
Accepting these excuses is accepting that nothing could have been done to save more people and to prevent this happening again.
I'm not sure about other Australians but I'm not buying many of the excuses listed above.
So what now?
Let's guess there will be a royal commission that will take 18 months to figure out what went wrong.
A detailed report will be published similar to the proceedings that followed the Canberra fires 6 years ago, Ash Wednesday fires in the 1980s, and the 1939 fires.
If we are to compare with previous mass-scale fires, I predict that little of the report will be implemented and most lessons will be lost and history will repeat itself again.
How long does it take to figure out what went wrong?
I think the above gives some clear ideas and just in case it isn't comprehensive enough here are some more reasons people's lives were lost, when the tragedy could have been less severe.
1. Councils allowing houses to be built close to trees.
2. The governments on both sides pandering to the minority parties such as the green movement and not doing sufficient back burning through the winter months thus fuel content is dangerously building up.
I grew up on a farm surrounded by forests and national parks and have experienced the feeling of hopelessly trying to stop fires getting out of control and can appreciate how dangerous they can be. I cannot even imagine the degree of the extreme fires that hit Victoria.
My dad and local neighbours on surrounding farms in northern NSW have complained for years as they can see that there is a disaster waiting to happen.
The forests and national parks are now locked up.
The roads being overgrown, with little back burning ever taking place, it is a disaster waiting to happen. When fires break out, they will kill and destroy so much - which is the very opposite of what the greenies want anyway.
So to be polite, the green movement needs to re-think its strategies and learn quickly from this to avoid contributing to future bushfire disasters, that there are forests and national parks sitting there right now building up dangerous levels of fuel content which is being neglected.
3. Poor fire resistant homes in fire prone areas.
4. Lack of education at school and in general for residents living in fire prone areas.
Especially city folk who move to these areas and haven't had the rural upbringing of fighting fires to appreciate the immense danger they pose
5. Residents under the false belief someone will come and save you or the authorities will effectively warn you beforehand.
Black Saturday has proven this isn't the case and to rely on the authorities is a death wish.
Except until things change you're on your own and if a fire is approaching and if anyone comes to help it's a bonus but your town is likely to be burnt to the ground before the authorities even figure it out.
"Houston, we have a problem"
6. Arsonists.
Let's not have arsonists used as escape goats for incompetent authorities. Arsonists started some of the Victorian Bushfires, however not all.
We need to plan that this will happen and expect the worst possible scenario and ensure authorities perform better than they did for Black Saturday to preserve lives.
The response from the public to help the victims in donations has been overwhelming and it says a lot about our country. However it is crucial we do not forget the victims in months to come.
I also urge people to not be too laid back or unwilling to offend or challenge those in authoritative positions that have not performed to the level required or expected.
The best way to serve is to ask questions of the authorities and demand answers to ensure that maybe we as a country will learn from the deadly lessons of the past and in future the loss of lives will be minimised.
Effort to prevent disasters such as the bushfires should always be the highest priority.
Humans tend to only react after tragic events happen. Let's become better at being proactive and now is our chance to act before another disaster happens this summer or the next. One thing we can be sure of is that there will definitely be more bushfires in the future – so we need to implement strategies to ensure we are better prepared for the future.
21st Century Charity foundation is supporting the Red Cross in donating to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. If you wish to contribute to the Red Cross, you can make your donation by visiting
www.21stCenturyCharityFoundation.com.au . |
