Eyre bushfire bungle to cost $30m
Eyre bushfire bungle to cost $30m
19 December 2007
published by www.news.com.au
COMPENSATION to the families of nine people who died after the CFS bungled fighting the 2005 Black Tuesday bushfires near Port Lincoln is likley to top $30m.
The State Government will be urged to pay at least $30 million in compensation after Deputy State Coroner Anthony Schapel blamed a series of errors for the January, 2005 fires, which destroyed 93 homes and 77,000ha of land.
Lawyers said they would seek an urgent meeting with Acting Premier Kevin Foley to discuss an out of court settlement of claims by relatives of the victims and property owners who lost their homes and farms in the $100 million disaster.
Lawyer Peter Humphries, who is leading a class action, said this morning that a settlement would be preferable to putting the victims through a drawn-out legal claim.
He said the length of court action “could well be in excess of two years”.
Mr Schapel found nine people, including four children, died because the Country Fire Service bungled a fire which ignited from the exhaust system of a vehicle owned by a Port Lincoln man, Marko Visic.
