Wilmington Fire

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (15:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to addressing a question to the Minister for Emergency Services regarding fire management.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: The opposition has been advised that throughout the Wilmington fire, shift changes occurred at the staging area rather than on the fire ground, leaving sections of the fire unattended without replacement crews, sometimes for up to 1.5 hours. On 8 February a back-burn was lit by DEW staff near Battery Ridge within Mount Remarkable National Park. This was done approximately 100 metres from Mr Modystach's property, which borders Battery Ridge. Mr Modystach was not notified or consulted. This back-burn was then left unattended for a period of time, which significantly extended the fire front, burnt into Mr Modystach's property and damaged his fences. My questions to the Minister for Emergency Services are:

1. Are CFS and DEW crews required to continue maintaining a fire while a shift change occurs?

2. Will neighbouring landowners be compensated for damage to their properties caused by unattended back-burns lit by DEW departmental staff?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:29): I thank the honourable member for her question. I believe last night there was a community forum where I extended an invitation to a number of people who wrote a letter regarding the matter that you have raised today, and I have spoken directly with a number of them as well about the importance of having a review and looking into an incident like the Wilmington fire, which was quite a significant fire in South Australia.

I really appreciate the feedback that they did provide. There are always learnings, but as we have discussed, whilst we are doing that independent after-action review of the Wilmington bushfires, we can also learn from those experiences, but a lot had happened during that fire. The CFS do come into control when there is a fire incident. We know that our farm fire units provide a significant amount of support, but we also know that we need to get those voices into one document, and that's what this process is all about.