During the last fire season Kangaroo Island had two serious flares (the Cygnet River fire and the Baudin Beach fire), and twice the meteorological conditions were favourable. Luck is not forever, so one would expect from Council a strong will to learn from these fires, isn’t it? Not so, considering the evasive and indifferent answers provided here [my comments thereafter are between square brackets]. — G. Bittar
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Questions on Notice by Councillor Ken Liu for the Kangaroo Island Council Meeting 2013.04.10
Cygnet River Fire
Answers by Mr Boardman, CEO
Question 1:
Has Kangaroo Island Council received its copy of ‘The Cygnet River Fire Inter-agency Debrief’ document or a post event report on the bush fire at Cygnet River on 18 February 2013 from the CFS? If Council has not yet received the document, when will Council expect to receive it?
Answer 1:
No – we have not received this document or any feedback from the debrief at this stage. We have spoken with the CFS and they have undertaken to get a summary of the meeting produced and circulated.
[a “summary” is useless; and “when” is left unanswered]
Question 2:
Will a copy of this document – ‘The Cygnet River Fire Inter-agency Debrief’ be released to the community for information and if not, for what reasons would the debriefing report not be made public?
Answer 2:
The matters Council Officers raised to the group are operational issues and it is not likely that these need be discussed in a public forum. The CFS manages the process and it will be up to them if they wish to make the document public – we would not expect this to be the case.
[the CEO refuses to accept that fire prevention matters legally are Council’s responsibility; he cannot hide forever behind an opaque process run by unknowns with no legal responsibility]
Question 3:
Will a copy of the debriefing report be provided to those Elected Members who are interested in more information about the fire, in particular the lessons learnt and issues arising from the Cygnet River fire?
Answer 3:
If Elected Members are interested then we may ask the CFS whether they are prepared to come and brief Council with a summary of Fire Events for the season and lessons learned etc. This is probably more pertinent than individual incident reports.
[“if”, “may”, “whether”, “probably”… the Cygnet River fire was a major one despite very easy meteorological questions, nevertheless Mr Boardman pretends there’s no need to learn from it]
Question 4:
What are the recommendations made in the debriefing report?
Answer 4:
Have not sighted the document so we are not aware of whether recommendations have been made or otherwise.
[“not sighted”, “not aware”… next question ?]
Question 5:
Were there any issues raised in the debriefing report which Council should be made aware of and to act upon in the best interests of the local community?
Answer 5:
As above – not sighted document so not aware of whether recommendations have been made or otherwise. If recommendations are made that impact directly on the greater Community then we would expect the CFS to manage the communication of these to the Community as this is their responsibility.
[“not aware”, “if”, “would expect”, “their responsibility”… again the CEO does not get it: fire prevention matters are Council’s responsibility; CFS fight fires; Council will get to court when there’s be a Big One, for stubborn irresponsibiliy — there will be one, impact will be devastating, indifferent individuals who did not do their job will pay the price, but the dead victims will not be brought back to life.]
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Cr Ken Liu
Kangaroo Island Council
P O Box 80, KINGSCOTE SA 5223
Ph: (08) 8553 2823 Mobile: 0428 322 005
Email: ken.liu@bigpond.com