Vic: CFA should advise homeowners to leave - commission =3

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-2009
Vic: CFA should advise homeowners to leave - commission =3

Federal and state governments should investigate whether it is technically possible
to send warning messages to mobile phones, the second phase of a national telephony-based
warning system, by the 2009-10 bushfire season, the report says.

Guidelines should also be developed for the use of fire station sirens to alert communities
to the threat of bushfires.

The commissioners - chairman Bernard Teague, Susan Pascoe and Ron McLeod - also recommended
the Victorian government identify "neighbourhood safer places" for people to seek refuse
at during fires.

Victorian Premier John Brumby foreshadowed that recommendation last month when he announced
that work would get underway to identify "safer places".

The commissioners backed away from using the term evacuation, instead preferring to
use relocation.

Under the recommendations, incident controllers from the CFA and Department of Sustainability
and Environment should decide whether relocation is necessary, the report said.

The commission's final report is due to be handed down next July.

The Black Saturday fires killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 properties.

AAP md/tdb/apm

KEYWORD: TEAGUE 3 MELBOURNE

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