By KATH GANNAWAY
LEAVE early if you’re going.
Have a plan, and practice it.
The East Warburton Fire Refuge is not an invitation to wait until the fire is on your doorstep.
Don’t lock yourself away.
Ask yourself … who is the weakest link in a stay and defend scenario?
These were just some of the well-worn messages and challenges driven home by CFA and Yarra Ranges Council as Warburton and Warburton East residents met on 15 October for a pre-fire season information night organised by the Warburton Emergency Planning Group.
Yarra Ranges Council Bushfire Shelter Options Officer Helen Wositzky gave East Warburton residents the good news, and the not so good, about the new Community Fire Refuge at Millwarra Primary School East Warburton campus.
The East Warburton refuge will be ready for this year’s fire season, but the refuge currently being retro-fitted at Millgrove will not.
Ms Wositzky said the oval at Millgrove had however been assessed as an NSP – Place of Last Resort and would go to council for a decision soon.
Warburton remains without either a refuge, or an NSP.
“We are looking at trying to establish something there, but it’s difficult because of the risk, especially in terms of meeting the heat criteria and getting the distance between open space and vegetation,” she said.
Ms. Wositzky warned travelling to a Community Fire Refuge, or a designated Neighbourhood Safer Place would be dangerous when a fire was in the local area – the scenario in which either of these options would come into force – and that with a refuge, numbers would be limited.
The East Warburton refuge will hold 297 people, but she emphasised that no pets would be allowed in.
“This will be hard for a lot of people,” she said.
Phil Cuthbert and Don Tomkins from the CFA gave practical advice and answered questions on issues ranging from preparation, plans and communication, but spoke frankly about the options of leaving early, or staying to defend, in the context of surveys that tell them is an astounding number of people who are still adopting a ‘‘wait and see” approach.
“We believe that 80 per cent of the community has a wait and see mentality; that is, they won’t do anything that they might have planned until they see the first fire truck go past,” Mr. Cuthbert said.
“They’ll keep checking … but what we say, is it’s a bit late to leave by that stage.
“If your decision is to leave, leave early.”
Mr Cuthbert said Warburton’s history shows that it had a conundrum with only one way out – and that if fires started close to town, they could be expected to impact in a very short time.
“The other situation is being surrounded by fires,” he said. “Not knowing what is going on, ashes, embers, for something like three weeks last time,” he said referring to 2009.
“Can you realistically just go away for three weeks? That can be really difficult,” he said.
“What we need you to do is have that in-between plan – to A – leave early, and B – if I’m at home when a fire comes, what do I do?”
He said the notion that one person could defend with a mop and bucket was blown apart by the Black Saturday experience and said anyone planning to stay and defend would have to spend money.
“You have to get serious about this, because it is a deadly business,” he warned.
Other considerations were people’s physical and psychological ability to cope with the fire experience.
“Have an honest conversation with everyone in your family who could be expected to be there,” he said.
Much of the concern of residents was around communication – or the lack of it, and what warnings could be expected.
Mr Tomkins said while the CFA warning systems had been backed up and linked in to other systems to take the load, no-one could be 100 per cent reliant on technology.
“You are looking at half an hour, maybe longer, before a message gets out on to the CFA website or the ABC,” Mr Cuthbert said.
“It is quite a significant time before anyone gets a heads-up,” he said and again reinforced the need for people to be alert and self-reliant .
He said there would be an automatic message to land-lines and mobiles, but said there would not be a lot of detail.
WEPG chairman Kevin Bargar urged people to act on the messages they had heard.
“You have heard a lot of this information before, but let’s all make a promise to ourselves and to our families that we are going to do more than we did last year,” he said.
Yarra Ranges Council will host an open day at the East Warburton refuge in November.
