THE Bushfire Front (BFF) believes a new independent rural fire service needs to be established to manage bushfire planning and control in regional WA.
BFF chairman Roger Underwood said it was time for a new fire authority, independent of the Fire and Emergency Service Authority (FESA), that could focus on rural areas while FESA focused on fighting fires in urban areas.
Currently, FESA has government authority to control bushfires throughout WA, but Mr Underwood is concerned about its lack of skills and experience necessary.
He said that in WA, unlike South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, there was no independent rural fire service.
"What we want is an organisation who will take up the job of implementing the Bush Fires Act," Mr Underwood said.
"This is an excellent piece of legislation, but FESA have all but ignored it over the years.
"FESA uniformed firefighters do a magnificent job in the city, but when it comes to the complexity of bushfires it is a different matter."
There have been a number of major bushfires over the past 12 months that brigades in the bush believed weren't handled efficiently.
Mr Underwood said fires on private land cannot be controlled from Hay Street and there was a danger that shires and the volunteer brigades were being marginalised.
"The volunteer brigades need solid professional support, not being told what to do when a fire occurs," he said.
"What we preach is that disaster prevention must be in the hands of local communities who are served by higher authorities, not governed by them."
Mr Underwood said many things had changed in rural WA which were having an impact on bushfire management and over the last 10 years bushfire management in rural WA had consistently gone backwards.
He said residential areas had grown, farmers had been replaced by "city folk", fuel reduction had declined dramatically and shires were backing away from their responsibilities.
"The current system, with its single-minded emphasis on jazzy suppression technology, is failing everyone," he said.
"We need an independent rural fire service, completely divorced from the uniformed brigades in the city, which would concentrate on the old-fashioned work of fire preparedness and bushfire damage mitigation, and which can capitalise on the experience of the volunteer brigades.
"The answer is not more helicopters or computers, it is a new and invigorated bushfire administration applying the simple lessons learned over the years and focusing on the bush."
But he said shires needed to take greater responsibility and said in many South West shires, there was a lack of support for effective bushfire management.
"Some shires have indicated that they are happy to hand the responsibility for bushfire management over to FESA," Mr Underwood said.
"I would suggest this is illegal, as well as foolish.
"Australia's volunteer fire brigade system, supported by local councils, is unique in the world, and needs to be bolstered, not undermined."
Locals Against Wildfire Association secretary Sandy Lewis said bushfire brigades and the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) had the experience and the knowledge necessary, unlike FESA.
Mr Lewis said fires should be locally controlled but FESA was trying to take over.
"FESA are trying to take over hazard management from both shires and the DEC," Mr Lewis said.
"Shires are being told they would lose finance if they don't go along with FESA's demands."
Mr Lewis said many city people were employed by FESA and they had a lack of understanding about regional areas and a negative attitude to prescribed burning.
"There is a lack of local knowledge by FESA in shire areas and a lack of communication between FESA and the shires and local bush fire brigades who have enabled our safety in the past," he said.
"People at FESA haven't had experience and are stopping the experienced people in the field such as the local brigades and DEC."
But FESA chief operations officer Craig Hynes said for major fires, there had to be an integrated approach with FESA taking the lead.
"Every once in a while when there's a major fire such as Toodyay, you need to be working in the same system and same approaches," Mr Hynes said.
"When we have a major fire, there is a need for everybody to be doing the right thing and to be working off the same plans, with one organisation making the decisions."
Mr Hynes said FESA and the DEC were integrating operations to ensure rural fires were managed in the fastest and most efficient way.
He said for most fires, DEC would respond to fires on their land tenure and local governments and farmers would control fires in their areas but legislation had been changed so that FESA could take control of all major bush fires.
He said it was important for the DEC and local governments to work together with FESA.
