The full recommendations of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission are well off, although the interim findings were handed down on August 17.

Unfortunately Victoria has a history of ignoring the lessons of previous inquiries into major fires.

There is no compulsion on government to accept the recommendations of these inquiries.

After giving initial public support to the findings of previous inquiries, with the passing of time so has their commitment to reforming Victoria’s fire fighting practices.

That’s why successive inquiries find the same factors and the same circumstances recurring. Because we haven’t learned the example of previous fires. History suggests that this will be the fate of the work of the current Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires recommended that local fire refuges be built. They weren’t. Councils were warned they could be liable if there were casualties in their refuges.

Many of the 1983 fires are believed to have been caused by power lines. The State Electricity Commission was sued and paid 500 residents $300 million. A study into the 32 non-fire-fighter fatalities found that 25 were outside their homes. Delayed evacuation until the last minute was a common failing with several dying in vehicles as they tried to escape.

The recommendations of the coronial inquest in the 1997 fires in the Dandenongs have not been implemented.

Key recommendations from more recent bushfire inquiries – in 2003 and 2006 – were either not implemented or subverted because of government cuts or privatisation of state enterprises.

Yet these inquiries repeatedly find similar shortcoming in our preparation or fire fighting operation.

As far back at 1994, the Report of the Public Bodies Review Committee into the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board recommended:

• one standard model of fire cover be developed for Victoria as a matter of urgency (page 16)

• the development of fire cover models, based on each agency working to the current boundary should cease (page 26). The Committee noted “Victorians are not concerned or interested in boundaries or any territorial or organisational differences between the agencies … in future, individual brigades must meet the response requirements under the standard of fire cover model so that any full-time, part-time or volunteer brigades best able to meet the fire cover objective can respond. This will result in the MFB and CFA response areas on both side of the current boundary providing a seamless transition of service between urban and rural areas.”

Yet the problem remains. A classic case is the 2008 fire at Apollo Parkways primary school at Greensborough. Being just inside the CFA border, the first call went to the volunteer units at Plenty and Diamond Creek. They took 15 minutes to respond. Seven minutes after the first call, the full-time Eltham CFA crew was called. And 12 minutes after the first alarm the MFB Greensborough fire station was called. The crew took 4 minutes to arrive but it was too late. The final damage bill was $1.5 million.

Will the current government be the first to seriously address Victoria’s fire crisis or will the 2009 Royal Commission end up like its predecessors, gathering dust in the Parliamentary library?

Campaign action stations
Follow the Firecrisis campaign on Twitter.
Keep in the Firecrisis campaign loop with Facebook.
Contact your local state Member of Parliament.