Fire towers left unmanned
Fire towers left unmanned
4 October 2007
published by http://abc.net.au
The ACT Opposition has accused the Government of failing to protect the Territory during the total fire ban yesterday, because fire towers were not manned until after midday.
The Government used crews from the Parks Brigade to man three of the ACT’s four fire towers from 12:00pm and 05:00pm AEST yesterday.
The Opposition’s Steve Pratt says it shows the Government is not prepared to safeguard the Territory this fire season.
“The Government is still faffing around trying to get the contracts signed with the contractors who will be responsible for managing and manning those fire towers,” he said.
“Now it is simply unacceptable that the Stanhope Government has not finalised fundamental contracts like that before the bushfire season started.”
But the ACT Government has rejected the accusations that it left the Territory vulnerable to bushfire.
Emergency Services Minister Simon Corbell says it is usual practice to man the towers in the high danger period between 12:00pm and 05:00pm AEST.
“All the fire towers were manned as they were needing to be manned,” he said.
“The ESA was not caught short by the total fire ban yesterday, in fact all steps were taken to ensure that the fire towers were manned as needed.”
