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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-02 Daily Xml
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MOUNT CRAWFORD FIRE SIREN

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (15:40): I would like to add to what the member for Light has just said. I have been involved with the program and have attended all the public meetings. I congratulate both Kim Michelmore and Malinda Melbourne on their initiative to establish a young driver education program in all our schools. I certainly support that.

Many years ago when I came to this place, I represented Port Broughton. They had a similar scheme at the school. They actually had access to a car which was donated to them by one of the car yards. They had a year 11 compulsory driving course. I do not know what happened to that. Anything that we can do to address the loss of life has to be supported.

Earlier this year, I was contacted by a constituent from Mount Crawford regarding the concerns of some residents of the area about not having a fire siren. I believe that the concerns of the community are extremely valid, particularly in the wake of the Victorian bushfires and the deaths of so many people, which resulted, in part, from the lack of warnings about the danger of the fires approaching their towns and their homes.

About 12 months ago, a lightning strike at night caused a fire on top of Mount Crawford. The first the owners of the adjoining property knew about it was when the fire units asked for help in getting to the blaze. So you can understand why they have concerns for their safety if a bushfire were to occur, particularly at night.

On 6 January this year, a gentleman who has lived in Mount Crawford for over 35 years wrote to the Premier outlining the concerns of the community because they do not have a fire siren, and requesting that the fire siren be made operational once again. The constituent informed me that, some time ago, the siren was located and operated by the local forestry office.

The constituent did not even receive an acknowledgement of his correspondence to the Premier, so he contacted me to advocate on his behalf, which I did. The gentleman finally received a response from the Minister for Emergency Services in late May, nearly six months after the initial letter. That is not good enough in my book, but delays in receiving responses from ministers are not the subject of this grieve: the safety of the people of Mount Crawford is.

A couple of years ago, the constituent raised the issue with the manager of the local forestry office and was told that there was no way the fire siren would be reinstated and that it did not work. The response then turned into, 'We don't have one.' Well, wonderful. The minister's response states:

The CFS does not have a station within the Mount Crawford area, and the fire appliances and the crew that service the Mount Crawford area belong to ForestrySA.

He goes on to say:

I am advised that the CFS has stations adjacent to the Mount Crawford area at Williamstown, Forreston and Mount Pleasant. Both Mount Pleasant and Forreston have sirens that are activated according to the CFS siren policy.

I do not think that having fire sirens in areas near Mount Crawford alleviates the worries the community has about a fire burning through their region. Look what happened in Victoria. The fire travelled extremely quickly. What if a similar situation occurred here, particularly if you are inside on a hot day with your air conditioner on and your TV going, unaware of what is happening outside? Really, the fire siren is the only way that you will hear about a fire if you are not listening to the radio.

The minister's response also states that the CFS contacted ForestrySA about the use of the siren at Mount Crawford. ForestrySA advised that it had no use for a siren and also that it was not aware of any requests for a siren. This seems to be a bit of a cop-out. Since when does ForestrySA have the exclusive power to determine whether or not a certain area requires the use of a fire siren? Surely, the local community should have some input, particularly when taking into account the incident that occurred when a fire started as the result of a lightning strike. People need to be warned, particularly at night.

The constituent who first brought this matter to my attention told me that he has contacted the local ForestrySA office regarding a fire siren several times. He is an elderly gentleman, so he has no reason to lie; yet ForestrySA maintains that there have been no requests made to it to have the siren returned. I find this very strange indeed. It is all very well to set up a bushfire task force and ask people to have bushfire plans but, unless proactive action is taking in relation to warning people, we are leaving ourselves wide open to another bushfire with tragic consequences occurring here.

I urge the Rann Labor government to reinstate the fire siren in the Mount Crawford area. I cannot believe this is the case. A fire siren is of minimal cost. They are not big capital outlays. I cannot understand why the siren that was there is not reinstated or replaced with a new one and operated in the same way it did before. The people of Mount Crawford are asking for this, and I think it should be urgently addressed before the next fire season.

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