Commission recommendations welcomed

Lawyers assisting the royal commission into the devastating bushfires have made interim submissions, suggesting better warnings and information be issued to communities and the construction of local fire refuges.

Major changes need to be made to the role of Victoria's chief fire officer who was "divorced from fundamental aspects" of his job on Black Saturday, the bushfires royal commission has been told.

Counsel assisting the commission Jack Rush QC said statutory changes were needed to specify the role of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) chief officer Russell Rees.

Mr Rush told the commission Mr Rees was not performing what should be basic aspects of his job, in particular the protection of life, on February 7.

Mr Rees had earlier given evidence to the commission that his role on Black Saturday was non-operational and did not involve direct control of firefighting.

In his interim submission to the commission, Mr Rush said it should be a reasonable expectation that the chief fire officer should be responsible for a wider range of direct functions including issuing "accurate and timely" warnings.

"It is a core responsibility (of the chief officer) to warn communities of the risk of fire," Mr Rush told the commission.

Among the other interim recommendations is a call for a revision of fire warning systems, including a return to the national Standard Emergency Warning System (SEWS), the development of technology to allow messages to be sent to mobile phones in a specified area and for local sirens to be sounded.

Mr Rush said the sounding of warning sirens by local brigades had been stopped by the CFA because it could disturb communities.

But he said the sirens were "effective warning systems" as had been proven by CFA officers who had gone against the regulation on Black Saturday.

The CFA also came under criticism for inflexible practices that prevented proper information being passed to communities in the path of the Kilmore East fire that devastated the towns of Kinglake, St Andrews and Strathewen.

Mr Rush called for a special investigation into why the Incident Control Centre for the fire was unprepared for the job and in the hands of people not properly equipped to undertake it. Counsel are continuing to make their submissions.