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[Zippy]

Marysville evacuation 'not considered during Black Saturday fires'
Article from: AAP

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October 07, 2009 11:54am

FIRE authorities in charge of the Black Saturday inferno that wiped out Marysville did not consider sending firefighters to evacuate the town or protect locals sheltering at the oval, the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission has heard.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) officers running the incident control centre based at Alexandra knew at 5.55pm that people were gathered at Gallipoli Park in Marysville.

But Andy Miller, a DSE incident controller at the centre until 5.30pm, told the commission that evacuation and protection of the refuge was not considered.

Mr Miller was one of two officers based at the control centre who were put in charge on February 7, despite their lack of qualifications to deal with a major fire. Mr Miller was only a Level 1 incident controller on the day, but he was put in charge of the Alexandra centre which is supposed to operate at Level 3 - the highest level.

He had never had to deal with evacuations, Mr Miller told the commission, and was not aware it is the responsibility of incident controllers to order evacuations.

A level 3 incident controller was not put in place until the following day, despite the fact there was a qualified person living just 1km from the Alexandra centre.

The commission has also heard that for the first hour after the fire broke out, from 3pm to 4pm, neither the DSE or the Country Fire Authority knew who was in charge of the fire and both agencies were acting completely independently of each other.

The commission has previously heard that the inferno, known as the Murrindindi fire, was out of control within minutes.

Mr Miller said he knew by 4pm that the first attack on the fire had failed.

Seems two points were thrown into the mix from this article.

• Pre-emptive level 3 activation hadnt occured.
• Interagency co-operation failed.

[crashndash]

Seems two points were thrown into the mix from this article.

• Pre-emptive level 3 activation hadnt occured.
• Interagency co-operation failed.

that could be because inter-agency cooperation doesnt much exist....except on paper

[SA Firey]

The other point was both agencies didn't talk to each other and had NFI

[Pipster]

And if anyone has been to Marysville, to evacuate the town would put people at huge risk of being caught on the roads as the bushfire came through.   

Scrub in all directions, narrow winding hilly roads......

While there may have been some failures, in that no evacuation was ordered, I suspect if it had, then those sitting in the witness box would have been in the firing line for ordering an evacuation.....!

Pip

[bajdas]

Last 'Australian Story' TV show was on the recovery of twins from their loss in Black Saturday. Very good show.

Some information can be seen from http://www.abc.net.au/austory/programs/default.htm
28/09/2009 'her beauty and her terror' episode.

Also, the website http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/blacksaturday/#/stories/mosaic has some interesting information.

[crashndash]

And if anyone has been to Marysville, to evacuate the town would put people at huge risk of being caught on the roads as the bushfire came through.   

Scrub in all directions, narrow winding hilly roads......

While there may have been some failures, in that no evacuation was ordered, I suspect if it had, then those sitting in the witness box would have been in the firing line for ordering an evacuation.....!

Pip

Pip...precisely....and this is the real worry now we are hearing these same thoughts echoed everywhere from politicians, CFS, and the Punter on the street..... if u think 200+ in country Victoria was bad (and no....I'm not saying it wasnt, dont get me wrong...) then wait and see what it looks like with Gorge Rd, or Greenhill Rd, or Upper Sturt Rd or Chandlers Hill Rd packed with Mum and Dads with kids, dogs, cats and no idea all following the Red Alert (or whatever colour it becomes) evacuation notice....carnage

Simple message for summer fire safety......On the Road - No Place To Be