The cooperation between paid and volunteer firefighters on the night of the St Patrick’s Day fires was “excellent,” a south-west volunteer firefighter spokesman says.
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Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria District Five councillor Owen O’Keefe, of Winslow, said while the March 17 fires had caused widespread destruction, firefighters had been able to stop some blazes from causing significant damage.
Mr O’Keefe said fires on the night of March 17 at Illowa/Koroit, Minjah and Laang were rounded up quickly by firefighters.
However strong winds did enable other fires at Gazette, west of Penshurst, and others near Garvoc, at Terang and near Camperdown to get away to burn a total of 14,000 hectares and destroy 26 homes, thousands of livestock and thousands of kilometres of fencing.
Mr O’Keefe said the fires had been well fought with most of it done by volunteer firefighters from local brigades who battled through the night.
He said the state government’s attempt to destroy the integrated model for firefighters in many country areas such as Warrnambool could have a negative impact in future to the response to large-scale fires such as the March 17 outbreaks.
Under the integrated model, paid and volunteer firefighters work under the same organisation but the government has tried unsuccessfully to separate them into different organisations.
Mr O’Keefe said the government’s failed plans to abolish the integrated model could have diminished volunteer numbers at Melbourne fringe fire stations that often provided the “surge” response to large-scale fires.
The government’s attempt to restructure the CFA was defeated in late March after two Opposition Upper House MPs defied convention to vote against the draft bill despite earlier saying they would be unable to vote.
Mr O’Keefe said he hoped the state government “would have a good hard think” before it attempted any new reform that would adversely affect CFA volunteers.
He said the government had included proposals for a presumptive rights compensation scheme for firefighters as part of the draft legislation that also included the proposals to restructure the CFA.
Under the proposed presumptive rights, a firefighter claiming compensation for certain cancers doesn’t have to prove that firefighting is the cause of their cancer.
Mr O’Keefe said the government should reintroduce the proposals for presumptive rights.
“Claiming you cannot have one (presumptive rights) without the other (CFA restructure) is deceitful,” he said.
