Fire fight: Report recommends shake-up of bushfire services

The Barnett Government will be under pressure to set up an Eastern States-style rural fire service in line with a major recommendation from the investigation into January’s Yarloop disaster.

The West Australian can reveal the keenly anticipated report makes the case for WA to follow NSW, Victoria and South Australia in having a specialist body to handle bushfire management outside the metropolitan area, including mitigation.

The Government’s handpicked investigator Euan Ferguson, a former Victorian Country Fire Service chief, yesterday briefed Cabinet on his two-volume report into the Waroona-Yarloop fire.

Colin Barnett, who will release the report in Harvey on Thursday, described its recommendations yesterday as “contentious”.

“This is a very frank report,” the Premier said.

“There will be statements made that some people might take offence at, might think are too hard.

“I don’t think it’s judgmental. It doesn’t apportion blame but does make constructive recommendations about how that fire could have been handled better and makes some longer term recommendations about the structure of the fire services.”

Two men died and 181 properties were destroyed when WA’s worst bushfire, sparked by lightning in Lane Poole Reserve national park, largely razed the historic town of Yarloop in early January.

It is understood the report finds the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, which was late to specifically name Yarloop in its emergency alerts, could improve the timeliness and detail of its warnings but it largely backs how the authorities responded.

Some recommendations, including keeping better tabs on where fire trucks are and crew fatigue, are being addressed already with tenders called to supply vehicle location technology.

Mr Ferguson’s observations about fuel loads in south-western WA are also said to be “frightening”.

His key recommendation for a rural fire service is set to divide the emergency services sector.

Regionally focused groups such as The Bushfire Front and Association of Volunteer Bushfire Brigades are in favour of the move, arguing DFES is too focused on the metropolitan area.

But it would be vehemently opposed by the United Fire Fighters Union and Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson has publicly questioned the need for a separate bureaucracy.

The proposal poses several dilemmas for the cash-strapped Government.

It would cost millions of dollars and give the Government no chance of meeting its aim of implementing any Yarloop reforms before the next bushfire season, making it largely a question for whichever side wins the March 2017 election.

Mr Ferguson’s report was handed to the Premier in April.

Mr Barnett said the Government had not yet decided which recommendations to adopt.