Vic mayor upbeat about new fire code

Residents of Victoria's bushfire-ravaged areas are worried about tough new codes
adding thousands of dollars to the cost of rebuilding their homes.
But Mayor Lyn Gunter, of Murrindindi Shire - one of the worst-hit areas - says
although things cannot be the same, she's confident people will adapt.
From Wednesday, all new and modified homes will have to comply with much more
stringent building codes for protection against bushfires.
The Victorian government has brought forward the national standards by a year in
response to last month's Black Saturday firestorm that killed at least 210 people.
The new standards will add more than $20,000 to the cost of an average home in
Victoria's most fire-prone areas.
Traditional timber houses and deckings will be banned unless they are treated with
fire retardant, and walls, roofs and external fittings will have to be made of
non-combustible materials.
Homes will also have to be built on concrete foundations up to 51 metres from
vegetation if the site is classified high risk.
Ms Gunter, whose shire covers the devastated Marysville, Kinglake and Flowerdale
areas, said although safety was paramount, the extra cost of rebuilding was a
concern.
"People are saying it does concern them and will their insurance cover the cost and,
if not ... how is it going to be covered?" she told AAP on Sunday.
"The response I've been able to say is the Reconstruction and Recovery Authority
will be looking at that.
"We're not ever going to have back the same feeling and ambience that we had there;
it's going to be different but I think people will be able to adapt to those
differences as we go along."
Calignee resident Pam Allen lost her Gippsland home to the firestorm despite being
well-prepared.
She and her husband Bob had stayed to defend their property but escaped at the last
minute when embers ignited under the eves.
Mrs Allen said her insurance should cover the extra cost of rebuilding but doubted
whether, even under the new building codes, her home could have withstood the
intensity of the February 7 fires.
"It's going to make it safer and I think that's a really good thing," she said of
the new building codes.
"My husband is always using an analogy of safety in cars and we don't have a problem
with paying extra money for safety in cars and we really shouldn't have a problem
with paying more to have safety in our houses."
The Victorian government will also review its controversial native vegetation
policy, which bans some land clearing and has been blamed for creating fire hazards.
Ms Gunter wouldn't say whether she believed the review should have been carried out
earlier but said it was a sore point in communities which were destroyed.
"Nobody dreamed in their worst nightmare that anything like this would have
happened," she said.
"You've got some people that are very upset by what's happened and other people who
are saying - well we can see there needs to be a balance and we have to sort out
that balance."