Fire commissioners urged to scrap 'stay or go'

26 May 2010, 7:06 pm   -   Source: AAP/SBS
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Around two thirds of the victims of the Black Saturday bushfires died while sheltering in homes (screengrab)

Around two thirds of the victims of the Black Saturday bushfires died while sheltering in homes (screengrab)

The idea people in well-prepared homes can save their property and lives in the face of a raging fire is a myth and should be abandoned, the Bushfire Commission has heard.

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The idea that people in well-prepared homes can save their property and their lives in the face of a raging fire is a myth and should be abandoned, the Bushfire Commission has heard.

The 'stay or go' policy failed the community on Black Saturday because many people who prepared to stay and defend their homes were killed, lawyers assisting the commission said.

But the state government's solicitor argued it was still safer for people to shelter in houses during a bushfire than be caught in the open when trying to flee at the last minute.

The commission has been told that 113 of 173 people killed in the February 7, 2009 bushfires died sheltering in homes.

Senior Counsel assisting the commission, Jack Rush, QC, said the government's policy didn't work because many people don't make preparations to stay and defend, and fewer left early.

Call for more evacuations

He said the assertion in the stay or go policy that "people protect houses, houses protect people" was a myth and the policy should be abandoned.

"We call for a replacement of the policy with a new policy based around evacuation as the primary protective action for a community that is threatened by fire.

"If evacuation is not possible, shelter options should be available to all communities that are threatened by fire."

Mr Rush said research had shown 75 to 80 per cent of people living in bushfire-prone areas would "wait and see" if a bushfire was heading towards them before deciding whether to leave.

"The policy is based on ideals and a philosophy that in many respects are divorced from the way in which the policy operates and certainly divorced from the way in which the community puts the policy into action," he said.

'Stay or go' policy failed

Expanding on the proposed recommendations, lawyer Lisa Nichols said the evidence of people who died on Black Saturday and many survivors was that "a different policy would have served the community better".

"Studies before February 7 and the events of the 7th February show (the stay or go policy) has failed substantially, to the extent it should be abandoned," she said.

But Neil Clelland, SC, for the state government, said it was premature to say the policy had failed.
 
He rejected a suggestion by counsel assisting that the policy was out of step with human behaviour.

"We would say that far from being ideological and contrary to human behaviour, the policy was borne from human experience," Mr Clelland said.

Community refuges 'misleading'

"Our submission is that on the eve of 7th February, 2009, not only was that an appropriate policy, but it was an appropriate policy for the whole of Australia."

He said there was abundant evidence that showed late evacuations could be fatal and that well-prepared homes could provide a safe refuge for people while a main fire front passed.

Meanwhile, counsel assisting Melinda Richards was stinging in her criticism of the state government's use of the word Neighbourhood Safer Places instead of refuge, and called for the term to be dumped.

She also said signs placed at community fire refuges were "completely misleading" because they contained warnings that houses could provide better shelter.

Ms Richards stopped short of recommending a merger between Victoria's three fire agencies but suggested a new fire services board with representatives of each body be put in place.

 

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