Heat is on Barnett to protect brigades

In an unprecedented move that reflects the concerns of six peak rural bodies, a letter was sent to Mr Barnett this week seeking a meeting with him to discuss forming an independent rural fire service.

The tenet of the letter conveyed that maintaining the current system of infrastructure would result in more loss of life and larger scale fire disasters.

It backs a report by Victorian Country Fire Authority chief Euan Ferguson that "the current system for managing bushfires in Western Australia is failing citizens and government".

Last week, representatives of the peak bodies were involved in a conference call to discuss Mr Ferguson's recommendations and form a united lobby group.

They were the Association of Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades (AVBFB), Pastoralists and Graziers Association, WA Farmers Federation, the Bush Fire Front, the State Emergency Services Volunteer Association and Locals Against Wildfire.

According to AVBFB State president David Gossage, there has been a steady decline and erosion of community firefighting capacity and in recent years there has been increased frequency of mega fires, fatalities, and an exponential increase in housing and property losses from bushfires.

"It is no coincidence that these worrying changes have occurred since the abolition of the Bushfires Board," he said.

"It has seen the centralisation of emergency services and the overemphasis on response at the expense of risk prevention and mitigation."

The group is calling for the formation of a properly resourced, independent, community-based Rural Bushfire Service which is not controlled by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

This fire service would be charged with re-establishing community capacity in fighting fires and enabling mitigation activities to be carried out.

The Rural Bushfire Service would be regionally based, decentralised and staffed by experienced people who are skilled in fire mitigation, community liaison and working with volunteers.

The new lobby group also believe the SES volunteers should be managed by people who are experts in emergency services and where possible management staff recruited from within the ranks of SES volunteers.

"Common sense decision making at a local level is pivotal to fire management, if further fatalities are to be avoided in bushfires and natural disasters in WA," Mr Gossage said.

The group is also calling for the independent Office of Bushfire Risk Management to be moved to be within the State Emergency Management Committee secretariat and for the secretariat to answer to the Department of Premier and Cabinet, rather than DFES.

"These changes would lead to greater engagement of our emergency services volunteers and greater mitigation of fire risk and control of bushfires when they do occur," Mr Gossage said.

"The consequence of doing nothing will be more loss of life and larger scale disasters."

Bremer Bay farmer John Iffla, who is officer-in-charge of the Bremer Bay Volunteer Fire and Emergency Unit and past president of the Emergency Services Volunteers Association, said it was time for Mr Barnett to act.

"We don't need any more reports or inquiries," he said.

"The fire season is nearly on us again and the State government shouldn't be waiting until the end of September before it responds to the Ferguson inquiry into the Yarloop fire.

"It just requires a willingness by the government to take notice of the people who really know about bushfires, and that's the volunteers."

According to Mr Iffla, who chaired meetings for the Kelty Report working group two years ago, the State government "heard it loud and clear" from the committee, regarding the depletion of bushfire expertise within DFES and the lack of response to the Kelty inquiry regarding bushfire risk management.

"Two years on, the silence by Mr Barnett's government on those particular subjects has been deafening," Mr Iffla said.

"Blaming this situation on climate change is misleading because we are aware of it and have tried to put in place practical systems to combat it."

Mr Iffla said after extensive consultation by the working group, it was disbanded because of cost burdens and inaction of government to get behind the volunteers.

"Although I was fortunate enough to meet with (The Nationals WA leader) Terry Redman in Denmark, at that stage The Nationals had just committed funding to the Department of Parks and Wildlife and was unwilling to put more funding into the bushfire risk mitigation program DEFS was trying to establish," Mr Iffla said.

"I am unsure of the current position of The Nationals but hopefully they stand up and support this program

"It is time for government and the commissioner (WA Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson) to start being serious about bushfire risk management planning and do some mitigation works in high risk communities now.

"We are only three or four months away from potentially another Yarloop with nothing achieved except more paper shuffling and meetings.

"It is time to fund bushfire risk mitigation officers now and make them operational.

"They should already be working with local brigades building up relationships with them and when called upon to support brigades, work with them not to command them.

"You need to have people employed who know the business of bushfire fighting and planning to rebuild confidence in the system.

"We can't continue to have the status quo approach because DFES simply hasn't got enough experienced people in the system.

"Bear in mind, it is the current DFES management which has overseen the demise of the bushfire mitigation branch that was being built up under FESA (Fire and Emergency Services Authority) until FESA became DFES..

"It is another question whether they have the capacity and passion to manage the mitigation program.

"I would suggest it needs to be headed by a person with vast experience in bushfire fighting and planning."

Mr Iffla said Mr Ferguson backed volunteer brigades in his inquiry into the Yarloop and Waroona fires.

"It is time for this government to support its volunteers," Mr Iffla said.

"The time has come to split rural fire and emergency service apart from urban fire and rescue."