Chapter 4 - Warnings - 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission

2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission—Interim Report
4 WARNINGS
RETHINKING THE Standard emergency warning signal
4.188 As noted in paragraph 4.7, SEWS is not a warning. It is a distinctive alert tone or signal broadcast prior
to warnings for major emergencies. It is designed to ‘alert listeners or viewers of radio or television that
an official emergency announcement is about to be made concerning an actual or potential emergency
which has the potential to affect them’. 239
4.189 The use of SEWS is not referred to in the Emergency Management Manual Victoria, but a protocol is set
out in a document titled SEWS Guidelines for its Use in Victoria (October 2006). 240 The current protocol
for the use of SEWS requires the control agency to request the police to authorise its use. 241
4.190 SEWS was not used in Victoria on 7 February. There were no discussions with the Chief Commissioner
of Victoria Police about the use of SEWS on the day. 242
4.191 The Commonwealth had been considering a ‘relaunch’ of SEWS; however, it ceased that work in
anticipation of the findings of this Commission. 243
4.192 There is evidence of a clear reticence on the part of the emergency services in Victoria to use SEWS.
The signal has not been regularly used in Victoria, because of concerns about its so called ‘overuse’
and the emergency services’ view that its use may cause confusion. 244 This appeared, in part, to be
derived from reviews of past fires. For example, Mr Rees said:
Although the decision to use SEWS rests with an Incident Controller, the current practice within the CFA
is not to utilise SEWS. This is because whilst SEWS remains available for use, the current process of
graduated warnings is considered more sophisticated. That view has been reached on the basis of both
anecdotal evidence and reviews conducted following fires in 2006–07. 245
246
4.193 In evidence, Mr Rees expressed the view that SEWS does not have a place if there are multiple fires,
and expressed concern that if SEWS had been used on 7 February prior to each urgent threat message
on the ABC, it would have been played 510 times on the day.
4.194 There was criticism about the use of SEWS following the 2005–06 fires in the report Debrief Outcomes
Significant Victorian Fires December 2005 and January 2006, Review by Ross Smith 12 July 2006.
In particular, the report was critical of the risk of ‘SEWS overload’. It also noted that messages were
broadcast late, and that SEWS messages must be initiated well before the anticipated fire impact. 247
4.195 It is obvious that SEWS has little utility if broadcast too late. However, a criticism about the late use of
SEWS does not justify a conclusion that SEWS should not be used at all or that the mere use of SEWS
has the capacity to confuse the listener. Mr Esplin agreed that there were no reports following the 2005–06
fires of dangerous or late evacuations or death that could be traced back to use or misuse of SEWS. 248
4.196 Further consideration was given to use of SEWS in the report Joint CFA/DSE Review of Effectiveness
of Information Flow to Communities and Media During Fire Incidents – Preliminary Findings (July 2006)
(CFA/DSE Review of Information Flows). 249 This review suggested that the use of SEWS during 2006 fires
was inconsistent and sometimes inappropriate. It was overused to the degree that the public were
‘sick of it’. The consensus in the debriefs was that SEWS messages had become counter-productive. 250
4.197 The use of SEWS must be consistent. This could be achieved by adopting appropriate protocols, such as
one that the signal would be used to precede the proposed bushfire warning messages that relate to fires
of a particular severity — namely those which are ‘extremely dangerous’ and those that pose a threat to
human life.
4.198 The CFA/DSE Review of Information Flows report contains a curious comment. It states that, ‘other than
performing the role of an initial notification, SEWS in this context may arguably have become obsolete’. 251
However, the only appropriate role for SEWS is just that — as a signal, or what the review refers to as the
‘initial notification’. When seen in the correct light, SEWS does have an important and useful role to play,
as has been demonstrated in South Australia.
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