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There's merit in CFA roadside burn-off planThe Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has urged the State Government to adopt a Gippsland CFA volunteer’s suggestion to give local fire brigades the authority to carry out pre-summer fuel reduction burns on roadsides. By Kevin Balshaw - 23rd September 2009 - Back to News The Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has urged the State Government to adopt a Gippsland CFA volunteer’s suggestion to give local fire brigades the authority to carry out pre-summer fuel reduction burns on roadsides.
Mr Davis said the Government had left it too late to prepare high-risk fire areas, particularly Gippsland, adequately for what was expected to be another severe summer.
He said the Government had failed to scale up prescribed burning in state forests in line with the recommendation of a parliamentary inquiry’s finding last year, and had only recently acted to enable householders to remove trees and clear debris and undergrowth near their homes.
This still left in place a raft of restrictions under the state’s planning laws that prevented residents or the fire authorities from clearing a volatile build-up of fuel on roadsides.
"Representations on the problem of roadside fuel loads have been made to me by many members of the Gippsland community and organisations including the CWA," Mr Davis said.
He said there was considerable merit in the suggestion of longtime CFA volunteer, Maurie Killeen, of Valencia Creek, that fire brigades should be given power to conduct hazard reduction burns along local roads.
"Brigade members have the local knowledge to make a realistic assessment of the risk and the means to undertake burning off safely," he said.
"Some decades ago this used to be common practice, and it was an important safeguard against fires in rural areas.
"I agree entirely with Mr Killeen that preventative burning would not only provide additional protection for rural people and their properties but also help to preserve native vegetation that is destroyed in the event of a high-temperature bushfire."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au
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