A Nation Charred: Report on the inquiry into bushfires

EXH.160.0146
THE APPROACH TO THE 2003 FIRES - DELAYS AND CAUTION 113
4.51 At the Committee’s public hearing in Wodonga a group of brigade
captains and senior experienced fire fighters from north east Victoria
agreed that an over-cautious approach now prevailed. One senior
brigade member explained how concerns about liability affected
decisions about fire fighting:
The coroner’s findings in the Linton fire have made
everybody very nervous … That has affected the effectiveness
of brigades getting in and doing their job. We tend to be told,
‘If in doubt, get out.’ We have better resources, much more
expensive equipment and more training and yet our ability to
get water onto a fire has deteriorated because people are
worried about the liability. If you say, ‘Go in and do it’ and
something happens, they do not want it on their neck. 50
4.52 A rural fire brigade Captain told the Committee
I agree wholeheartedly that the Linton inquiry has definitely
put the wind into everybody. Unfortunately, the way the law
operates today, if you do something and it goes wrong, you
know you are going to cop it – so you don’t do it. People have
got the wind up. 51
4.53 This view was expanded by a fellow brigade Captain:
As regards the liability, strike team leaders have five trucks
and many a time you hear of those trucks parked out on
asphalt watching the farmers putting out their own fires with
slip-on units. They make those decisions because of the
liability. They have at the back of their mind, ‘If I take those
five trucks in there and something goes wrong, I’m at fault.’
There is a fine line between safety and getting water on fire.
With fire fighting you are fighting an unknown enemy. It is
an unpredictable enemy. And that is why we had a lot of
trouble this year with the strike team leaders with that
litigation in the back of their brain, that ‘I may be at fault.’…
Five years ago it was not a problem. Since the Linton inquiry,
everyone is so frightened to make a decision that we are not
getting water on fire quick enough. 52
50 Robin Box, Transcript of Evidence, 24 July 2003, p. 66.
51 Tony Menz, Transcript of Evidence, 24 July 2003, p. 66.
52 Mervyn Holmes, Transcript of Evidence, 24 July 2003, p. 67.