Fire Proofing the Nation !

Last summer's bushfires were certainly a wakeup call on a lot of fronts.   Householders need to revise their insurance cover because many were woefully under-insured and - tragically - many were not insured at all.  Insurance is all about risk and there is the expectation that homes closely surrounded by bush will attract a significant premium increase this coming season.

Unfortunately, for many people it is that close proximity to the surrounding bush that is the charm they seek. A tour of the outskirts of cities and towns reveals homes that the fire brigades would term " suicidal " in a bushfire.  Many of the homes burned last summer are being rebuilt in exactly the same location.

The enquiry into last seasons fires has produced a slate of recommendations and foremost is a demand that land owners take action to reduce the fire risk.   That will be interpretted by many to mean cutting more fire breaks to stop fires breaking out of forest areas and reducing the combustible matter surrounding homes by lighting controlled fires when the conditions suit.

Both the city fire brigades and the country fire authorities carry out that work on a regular basis but the volume is hampered by unsuitable weather conditions and the magnitude of the work. There is a very real risk that many householders will take that instruction literally and try to reduce the fire hazard by lighting their own controlled burns.  Mum and Pop reduction hazard fires would have a tendency to get out of control and could do more harm than good.

Many parts of Sydney are intersected by steep slopes on which no homes are possible but which constitute a fire hazard.  Homes adjoining these are at risk from the accumulated tree litter and yet the task of clearing it away is beyond the ability of often elderly, untrained householders to manage.  Many are not in a financial position to employ labor to get that job done.

In many cases, what is required is for the combustible material to be slashed and gathered into piles and burned under the supervision of trained fire people and all that is required is an available labor force.  We have such a force available in the form of the people ordered by the courts to perform community service for the crimes they have committed and this is served over weekends under the supervision of corrective services officers.

All that seems to be missing is the necessary coordination for corrective services to supply the workforce to clear areas determined as high priority by the fire brigades as necessary to reduce the city fire hazard.  Once the litter is slashed and gathered into concentrated areas the actual burning would be undertaken by the fire people when conditions suit.

That seems to tick all the boxes.  It would be a practical task for the people serving weekend detention instead of prison and it would certainly be returning a worthwhile function to the community.  Exactly the same benefit would apply in country areas where hazard clearing would be shared by corrective services marshalling their prisoners in conjunction with the rural fire services to get the work done.