Bill says it all
From the horse's mouth - survivor Bill Culhane's words of wisdom.
Was it due to a lack of burn-offs?
No, it was a lack of planning and foresight in extreme conditions
I’ve not posted this earlier due to the sensitivities surrounding the recent bushfires on 7 February that took over 200 lives throughout Victoria including two in this area.
But it’s good to hear one survivor telling it exactly as it is (or was).
In this report appearing in the Wangaratta Chronicle last week, a Mudgegonga farmer notably does not point the finger of blame at ’greenies’ preventing burn-offs (like so many others have done) and, instead, drives home the real message to be learnt from these hell-fires:
MUDGEGONGA bushfire survivor, Bill Culhane, believes mandatory evacuation from properties threatened by bushfires must come into Victoria.
“They’ve got to look at it,” said the invalid pensioner, who counts himself among the lucky ones as the massive Beechworth fire, fanned by 45 degree heat and strong winds, ripped through the district on February 7, killing Mr Culhane’s friends, John and Sue Wilson, and destroying more than a dozen neighbors’ properties.
“It was the fire ball from hell and the devil was riding it,” he said.
“There was nothing you could do to stop it….trees were ripped out of the ground in the firestorm.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to would never go through that again.”
The fires have ignited debate over the stay and defend policy, and Mr Culhane, having seen what he has, believes laws must change.
“If the days are over a certain temperature and the wind over a certain strength, then I reckon people must have to evacuate.”
Comment:
Well said, Bill. To take what Bill has said one step further, it seems to me that we need not only laws that empower fire authorities and police to ORDER evacuations during fire events, but we also need to change the standard warnings about ‘leave early or stay and defend’ whenever such extreme conditions are forecast. I’d suggest the main change needs to be a strong warning that ‘staying & defending’ is the poorest option when you’ve got conditions likely to create a firestorm. How many lives would that simple message have saved? A lot more than any burn-offs would have, I bet.
Promoting 'Beautiful Bright'.
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Interesting that now you have hundreds of people attending community meetings about fire safety where you used to get less than 10. I think people have been complacent.
We judged Ash Wednesday as the benchmark of bad fires because of the number of deaths but we’ve had many big firest since that only good fortune stopped from becoming widespread killers.
The fact that most people decided to evacuate Warburton and Upwey on Monday shows that people have got the message.
I hope Bill’s message gets a run in the national press.
I hope Bill’s message gets a run in the national press
It should, Wah. We had two much bigger fires here in 2003 & 2006, but they were nowhere near as ferocious as 09 due to the lighter winds (especially in 03). I remember when the 03 fire in the Buckland valley started to move towards Bright (caused by a s/west change). The police did a great job of door-knocking and advising people that if they were going to go they should “go now”. The fire was just 2kms away but we stayed, not because we’re stupid or heroes, but because the change was a weak one and I had serious doubts it would reach here, which proved to be right.
The point is though, no one should ‘stay & defend’ in conditions like we had on Feb 7 and in those conditions we can’t rely on the police (or anyone else) giving ample warning of it approaching – it moves too fast. So the answer has to be that it is drilled into people that in extreme conditions you leave as soon as there is a fire within even 20 or 30ks of you and moving your way.
I know Bill personally and spoke to him after work about a week ago, I’ve never seen him so shaken up.
He does hold the views the the greenies have stuffed things up ( as do I…as should everyone) but as he said, nothing would have stopped what we had on the 7th.
It’s a separate issue that shouldn’t be bought into the ‘debate’ but it will as those who hate the greens will use the fires as ammunition and those who are on the watermelon side of politics will be saying things like ‘nows not the time for blame’. It’s gunna happen
Importantly though, Orville, Bill didn’t make ‘greenie’ issues the main point of his commentary on the fires. As he said, “nothing would have stopped it”. I’m no expert but I’d suggest it wouldn’t matter how much burning off had been done in the case of these particular fires. You’re right though, that won’t stop (and hasn’t stopped) the ‘let’s burn off the whole State’ brigade & ‘greenie haters’ from laying blame.
How can you know when is the right time to stay and when you should leave though? When the fires went through the Snake Valley area a few yrs ago and our property was in danger, my dad stayed to fight and if he hadn’t of the place would have gone up.. But imagine it had turned out like the recent ones, is there a way to know?
Well, the conditions were forecast to be the most extreme we’d ever had, Luli, and they were. So in extreme conditions like that there’s not much point in staying & defending and the time to go is as soon as you know there’s a fire within about 20 or 30 kms and blowing your way, I would suggest. That’s assuming you’re kept informed of course.