Changes urged for WA DEC firefighters
Changes urged for WA DEC firefighters
29 September 2010
published by news.smh.com.au
Australia — Western Australia’s environment department has been ordered to revamp its firefighting chain of command in response to the deaths of three truck drivers in a bushfire.
The bushfire management practices of the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) were examined in an independent review following a damning coroner’s report on a blaze in Boorabbin National Park in December 2007.
The fire on the Great Eastern Highway west of Kalgoorlie killed truck drivers Trevor Murley, Lewis Bedford and Robert Taylor after fire management officers reopened the highway to traffic.
WA Environment Minister Donna Faragher released the review’s findings on Wednesday and said she had asked the DEC to implement its recommendations.
“What happened at Boorabbin should never have happened, and I as minister never want to see such a situation like that ever happen again,” she told reporters.
The review, by South Australia’s Country Fire Service chief Euan Ferguson, found the DEC had a “sound capability” to manage bushfires in WA’s 25 million hectares of conservation lands.
But it listed 17 areas where improvements could be made, including the chain of command.
The DEC is developing a new reference document setting out policy and key work systems, and has implemented stringent procedures to manage traffic during bushfires.
The review also said incident management teams should conduct annual exercises before the fire season, and called for incident controllers to issue early incident plans and for the DEC to develop an aerial firefighting strategy for WA.
Better planning to retain skilled staff and train up new staff is also recommended.
In November last year the WA Coroner reported on the Boorabbin deaths, making adverse findings against DEC incident controller Barry Hooper and two other officers.
Mr Hooper left the DEC in 2009. An inquiry has since cleared the other two officers of serious fault and they have resumed full fire duties.
AAP ldj/jl PERTH, Sept 29 AAP – Western Australia’s environment department has been ordered to revamp its firefighting chain of command in response to the deaths of three truck drivers in a bushfire.
The bushfire management practices of the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) were examined in an independent review following a damning coroner’s report on a blaze in Boorabbin National Park in December 2007.
The fire on the Great Eastern Highway west of Kalgoorlie killed truck drivers Trevor Murley, Lewis Bedford and Robert Taylor after fire management officers reopened the highway to traffic.
WA Environment Minister Donna Faragher released the review’s findings on Wednesday and said she had asked the DEC to implement its recommendations.
“What happened at Boorabbin should never have happened, and I as minister never want to see such a situation like that ever happen again,” she told reporters.
The review, by South Australia’s Country Fire Service chief Euan Ferguson, found the DEC had a “sound capability” to manage bushfires in WA’s 25 million hectares of conservation lands.
But it listed 17 areas where improvements could be made, including the chain of command.
The DEC is developing a new reference document setting out policy and key work systems, and has implemented stringent procedures to manage traffic during bushfires.
The review also said incident management teams should conduct annual exercises before the fire season, and called for incident controllers to issue early incident plans and for the DEC to develop an aerial firefighting strategy for WA.
Better planning to retain skilled staff and train up new staff is also recommended.
In November last year the WA Coroner reported on the Boorabbin deaths, making adverse findings against DEC incident controller Barry Hooper and two other officers.
Mr Hooper left the DEC in 2009. An inquiry has since cleared the other two officers of serious fault and they have resumed full fire duties.
