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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-01 Daily Xml
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WILLUNGA BUSHFIRE

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (17:23): Thursday 13 March was one of those terrible days that all South Australians hate—hot northerly winds blowing. I think we were into about day 11 or 12 of the longest heat wave in this state's history. At about 2.30, a huge cloud of smoke went up behind Willunga High School on the range near Willunga Hill. It was the start of a very big fire, a fire that burnt out 132 hectares and threatened many properties and many lives. Today I want to commend all the CFS volunteers, SES volunteers, people from the MFS, the South Australian Ambulance Service, St John, the Salvation Army and everyone else who chipped in and helped in that fire effort.

Unfortunately, one house was lost. It belonged to a family of six who lost all their possessions and, of course, the house they were renting on the range. We had over 50 CFS brigades turn out from as far away as Walker Flat and Mannum. Volunteers from the CFS numbered more than 502. Two surveillance aircraft were used. Four fixed-wing bombers and the Erickson Skycrane poured a lot of water onto that fire in the initial few hours until the sun went down. It was the people on the ground who were putting their lives at risk to protect property and lives who did such a marvellous job. Unfortunately, nine CFS volunteers were injured: five members of the Seaford crew; and Peter Bishop, Ian Hockley, Sylvia Wade and James Farrall from the Range Hope Forest CFS crew.

Those nine firefighters from those two units were in there trying to save the house, which was eventually destroyed by the fire when a flare-up occurred. They were very lucky to survive that flare-up. What helped them was the training they have done over many years in the CFS.

On the Saturday after the fire, I did a drive-through with our emergency services minister, Carmel Zollo, that great leader of the CFS, Euan Ferguson, and David Przybilla, who is the group officer of the Kyeema Group. On that drive-through we met up with Peter Bishop, who has been a member of the CFS for many, many years. Many members would have seen Peter's photograph on the front page of Friday's The Advertiser—a great photograph by one of the photographers from The Advertiser, which captured the moment: someone who had just cheated death. He said on the Saturday when we met up with him that it was due to that great CFS training where they did the drill every time they went out for this situation that everyone dreads, that is, a flare-up when they are fighting the flames, that everyone managed to make it back into the truck, pull the blinds down and get to safety.

In any disaster, whether it be people trapped in the mines at Beaconsfield, cyclones or floods in the north of Australia, or bushfires in our state, Victoria or New South Wales, everyone looks on and wishes there was some way in which they could help. When it is in your own backyard, it is great to see the community spirit, not just from those people who are trained to do the work in the CFS and the SES and who get involved but also people such as the Salvation Army come out. The McLaren Vale Rotary Club lent their barbeque, the Salvos turned up, and that is where I went to give a hand cooking sausages for those CFS firefighters who were coming back from the front line.

We fed over 300 on the Thursday night as these firefighters changed over crews. Amidst the howling winds we had to put up with on that Thursday night into Friday morning, we fed those firefighters so that they could go back up and do their job, which was to contain the fire and which they did. The firefighters coming back in said that, if the winds flared up again on the Friday morning, the fire might go through Mount Compass and on to the coast. So, it would have been a dreadful situation, but it was averted.

I want to thank my parliamentary colleague Gay Thompson, who also came down, and the federal member for Kingston, Amanda Rishworth, who also helped pack sandwiches and lunches for the firefighters who were out on the front line. As I have said, you often feel helpless and feel there is not much you can do. We are not trained to be on the front line, but it is very valuable to be there to help feed those who are on the front line and who do such a wonderful job. As I said before, nine firefighters were injured and one house was lost, but things could have been so much worse if it were not for our brave volunteers.

Time expired.

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