Letter by Dr Bittar, Gabriel, 2011.02.24,
referring to Councillor Walkom‘s motion on the need for safe precinct classification to be achieved for all communities, carried by Council on 2011.02.09.
Dear Editor,
The highest threat to residents on the island is related to bushfires. Only two communities are considered as safe precincts by CFS. Hence much still needs to be done and Council should be proactive on this matter of life and death.
On 2011.02.09, a motion by councillor Walkom was carried: it requests “KI Council to liaise with the Country Fire Service, the Bushfire Management Committee, the Native Vegetation Council as a priority to clarify and define the responsibilities for each body so that safe precinct classifications are achieved for all communities, [and] that all parties be advised that KI Council needs clear guidelines at an early date to allow budgeting for any expenditure in the 2011/12 financial year.”
One cannot over-emphasise the importance of this short resolution to the community, all the more so that CFS is advancing in developing tactical guidelines for councils so as to establish all communities as safe precincts.
But it is up to our local BMC to decide what must be done to achieve this. From personal experience, our Fire Prevention Officer is active and progressively improving a bushfire safety situation which had been allowed to drift recklessly for too many years, but our BMC is not exactly listening to the needs of local communities.
For example, it has decided not to implement a firebreak to the north and northeast of American River. This is perplexing. At both public meetings with residents, in August and December 2009, it was indicated that the key reason for which the town is considered as belonging to a Very High bushfire risk area, and cannot be classed as a safe precinct, is the very high fuel load directly adjacent the town’s north/northeast boundary. Considering this, and the fact that it was considered that a fire-track / fire-break was nevertheless needed on its less threatening western boundary, it is all particularly confounding to residents. This matter clearly needs to be clarified.
Dr Gabriel Bittar
American River
Published in The Islander, 2011.02.24