How much is your life worth? CFS issues stern bushfire warning to residents to clean up their act
While South Australian firies battle catastrophic blazes in NSW, the CFS has slammed residents for putting lives at risk.
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Fire authorities have issued a stern warning to residents about the value of a life, as disturbing research reveals South Australians remain complacent about preparing for bushfires.
Sturt CFS has urged Hills residents to clean up now, posting on its Facebook page: “If you don’t want to do it, someone else will! It might cost you a couple of hundred dollars BUT what is your life worth,” the post said. “Sorry if that’s harsh but this needs to be acted on. We very well could be the next news headline.”
A CFS survey shows fewer than three in five young people were fire-ready. It showed the proportion of those aged 18 to 19 who were bushfire-ready had fallen from 22 per cent to 16 per cent in a year.
CFS acting director state operations Fiona Dunstan said advertising campaigns would use more emotion around bushfires to remind people of the threat this year.
“Research shows that the best motivator for bushfire preparedness is first-hand experience,” she said.
The survey findings were also echoed by university research which found 55 per cent of survey respondents in so-called danger zones chose to “wait and see” instead of evacuating threatened areas during a bushfire.
Research lead Associate Professor Delene Weber said this was a “scary result”.
“It’s really important that people get the message they are not going to be told to evacuate,” she said. “If they wait too late to leave, there may be a tree down or something and you can’t get out.” The study, conducted as part of a joint UniSA and University of Adelaide Australian Research Council grant, also found 63 per cent of respondents elected to stay in the bathroom and 7 per cent would go outside. But Dr Weber said it was better to pick a room with multiple entrances and a view of the fire, such as a laundry or hallway.
Meanwhile, the NSW Government has declared a state of emergency for seven days as bushfires rage across the state.
Four hundred schools and 20 TAFE campuses will close across the state as firefighters yesterday prepared for windy conditions.
Exhausted firefighters are battling up to 60 bushfires from the mid-north coast to the Queensland border. Three people have died and at least 150 homes destroyed.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has warned people living in areas facing the worst to leave now.
“My advice (is to) not be there – leaving early is the safest option,” he said.
“Catastrophic is off the conventional scale. We are talking about indices that go well beyond the old scale of 100.”
Sturt CFS which has sent more than a dozen firefighters to the catastrophic fires burning on the Australian east coast said some locals have become complacent because the region hasn’t seen a major bushfire since the 1950s.
“We’ve missed all the big fires since then, including Ash Wednesday (February 1983),” Sturt group officer Dale Thompson said. “Residents are thinking this area is not at major risk because it hasn’t happened in living memory – but eventually it will happen.”
“But that gap means there is a mountain of fuel piled up over decades that could ignite in the event of a bushfire.”
Mr Thompson said those who didn’t do the right thing were possibly “endangering their neighbours and the entire community”.
The CFS has a five point plan to act on before a bushfire:
• Be Vigilant
• Report suspicious activity to South Australia Police on 131 444
• Prepare or update your Bushfire survival plan immediately
• Leave early
• Talk about your plans with your loved ones and neighbours