Review to examine warnings during Qld bushfire threat

Firefighters have flagged a review of their warning systems and an audit of how prepared homeowners are for worsening bushfire ,following this year’s horror start.

FIRE authorities will review the effectiveness of warnings to homeowners after police were forced to physically evacuate residents amid ember attack during bushfires at Peregian on the Sunshine Coast.

It comes as firefighters admit people in coastal areas aren’t prepared with this year’s severe season already in full swing.

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Rural Fire Service Acting Assistant Commissioner Tony Johnstone said authorities honed their communications each season as they battled against some people who “aren’t receptive” to official warnings.

Firefighters and emergency crews risked their lives to fight the fire front as it mercilessly rolled through dry bushland at Peregian Springs, Peregian Breeze and Peregian Beach. Photo: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily

Mr Johnstone acknowledged some people did not realise the risk they were at during the Sunshine Coast fires despite constant messaging via ABC emergency broadcasting, local media, Facebook and Twitter.

“So that’s something we’ll look at to see how else we get the messaging out there,” he said. “We’ll have a closer look at it to see how the trends were and what people’s perceptions were at the time.”

Meanwhile, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her Government’s own review of water bombing assets, with the state last week needing to borrow from NSW.

A Large Air Tanker (LAT) dropping 15,000l of retardant over bushfires in Binna Burra, Queensland. (AAP Image/Supplied by QFES)

Mr Johnston acknowledged more needed to be done to prepare households, with surveys showing Queenslanders living in bushfire hot spots are only slightly more prepared than those not living in a hot spot (53 per cent versus 51 per cent).

He said while people in central Queensland would be ready, “some of those people on the coastal strips, they may not be as prepared”.

“But it gets to a point when some people aren’t receptive, or not ready for it, or it’s not the right time of year, or in their mindset fire season is a way off yet so until something happens in their street, at their door, that’s when things change,” he said.

Fire damage on David Low Way at Peregian Beach. Photo Lachie Millard

The comments follow Opposition claims the Palaszczuk Government was not properly prepared ahead of this year’s season.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has pointed to a Queensland Audit Office report from last year that found the state “was not as prepared for the threat of bushfires as it could be” and “communities in high-risk, bushfire-prone locations remained exposed to a higher level of risk than they should be”.

Among issues raised were that mitigation programs were not co-ordinated effectively, fire danger rating signs weren’t necessarily displaying correct information, local government areas lacked bushfire risk-mitigation plans, lives were at risk because significant numbers of households in high-risk areas did not have survival plans, and bushfire education was not evaluated for its effectiveness.

Triple-0 caller and Peregian Springs resident Ian Martin captured the moment the fire started in the bush along Koel Circuit and then turned into a raging bushfire.

It found recommendations it made in 2015 to improve bushfire safety had not been implemented.

But Mr Johnstone said the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had “moved on” from those out-of-date findings and was making their own, “better” improvements.

“We’re addressing the concerns and in some different ways,” he said.