Updated
Victorian emergency authorities have defended firefighters involved in battling a series of serious bushfires in the state’s east, after criticism from some residents that they did not do enough to protect property.
aKey points:
- Some Bunyip residents claimed fire crews “didn’t turn up” to help them
- Senior fire management said it did not condone criticism of CFA efforts
- The fire danger is not over, with emergency warnings for Dargo and south-east of Licola
Some residents of Bunyip in Gippsland said Country Fire Authority (CFA) firefighters were not present to help them as the bushfire approached.
The state’s Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Lisa Neville, said the criticism would be a “kick in the guts” to firefighters.
“I want to offer both mine and the government’s 100 per cent support to our volunteers, our career firefighters … who absolutely did an extraordinary job over the weekend and are still doing that right now,” Ms Neville said.
“I can not believe how they would feel now hearing that sort of criticism that’s coming, it must be a kick in the guts to them.”
Check the latest bushfire warnings on the VicEmergency website.
Critics ‘don’t understand firefighting 101’
The minister’s strong defence of firefighters was backed up by the CFA’s chief officer, Steve Warrington.
“We’ve had a number of examples where people have said ‘hey, the CFA didn’t turn-up’,” he said.
“I can tell you, our priority is our crew safety and indeed the safety of the public.
“We do not support or condone any of the messages that criticise CFA efforts,” he said.
Mr Warrington said he believed the messages were a reflection on people who “don’t understand 101 firefighting”.
“When fires are so intense and really hot and burning hard, one of our priorities is crew safety,” he said.
“While it’s terribly disappointing, my heart goes out to those that have lost properties, have lost animals and stock, I get that, but we will continue every day to make sure that that damage is reduced.”
Emergency Management Victoria’s commissioner Andrew Crisp had warned communities they could not expect “a fire truck at every house” due to the scale and ferocity of the blaze.
“We well and truly are focused on keeping our community safe and without a doubt, our people are doing a fantastic job on the ground,” he said.
The senior emergency authorities stressed the dangerous conditions fire crews faced in the hot and unpredictable conditions, with fallen trees blocking roads.
‘We fought it on our own’
The strong defence of crews followed comments today from some Bunyip locals expressing disappointment in the CFA.
Rex Newton, who lost his Bunyip home in the blaze, said there were no firefighters to help him defend his property.
“The only people that came in here were the local CFA blokes in the white uniforms, driving little white vehicles, that came in and said ‘you haven’t got long, do you want to evacuate?’ And I said ‘no’, and that was it,” he said.
Mr Newton later evacuated his property after he said the bushfire arrived at “unbelievable” speed and destroyed his home.
Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight, whose farm borders the Bunyip State Park, told Melbourne radio station 3AW he did not see firefighters in the area.
“Black Saturday there were CFA crews everywhere around here and I actually had tankers on my property supporting me and that was good because they stopped all the spot fires jumping in,” he said.
“I don’t know why, nobody in Tonimbuk saw CFA tankers around here, we fought it on our own, maybe the boys and girls were busy elsewhere, but I know a big property that went up just a kilometre to the west of me … they were hitting that from everything from the air.
“I love the CFA, but I didn’t see them on my place yesterday, I think they were busy elsewhere.”
Mr Crisp said nine houses had been destroyed in the weekend fires, with 23 outbuildings and one house damaged.
Authorities said the fire risk was not over, with the township of Dargo in the state’s east facing an ongoing emergency warning, and watch and act warnings current in other regions including Bunyip and Licola.
An emergency warning has also been issued for Boisdale, Briagolong, Bushy Park, Llowalong, Newry, Stockdale, Tinamba West and Valencia Creek south-east of Licola.
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