Bushfire warnings inadequate: victim

Bushfire warnings inadequate: victim

A man who lost his wife and son in the Black Saturday bushfires says the warnings
given the previous day were inadequate and failed to reach many people.
Survivor Denis Spooner told an inquiry into the worst fires in Australia's history
that people in areas like his town of Strathewen often did not read newspapers or
listen to the radio.

Mr Spooner, whose wife Marilyn and son Damien perished in the family home on
February 7, said he knew it was a day of total fire ban but he had not heard
Victorian Premier John Brumby's dire warnings the previous day.
"We live in a different world to you people down here," Mr Spooner told the
bushfires royal commission on Friday.
"People live in that particular area to get away from the hustle and bustle of the
city."
Mr Spooner said his wife, who did not read newspapers or watch television news
bulletins, was typical of many people in Strathewen, where 27 people died.
On the day of the fire, the former Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteer of 14
years did not listen to ABC Radio, which carried extensive warnings, but instead
monitored the CFA's website and watched for any signs of smoke on the horizon.
He was aware of a fire at Kilmore, about 40km away, but was not concerned until he
saw an alert message for Whittlesea on the CFA website, about 4pm.
Mr Spooner said the family - Marilyn, and Damien and his wife with their two
children - planned to leave early to visit Mr Spooner's other son Warrick in
Craigieburn, in Melbourne's north.
But he didn't believe the leave early policy meant the day before or even the
morning of a day of total fire ban.
Mr Spooner said on a normal day, if a bushfire threatened Strathewen, there would be
ample time to escape to nearby Hurstbridge, which was only about 10 minutes' drive
away.
After hearing the fire was 20km away in Whittlesea, he drove around local streets to
warn neighbours and then piled the family into four cars to drive toward Arthurs
Creek, still believing there was enough time to reach safety.
But the speed of the fire beat them.
"When the fire was in Whittlesea ... on a normal day it was still a good 20 to 30
minutes away from us where we were situated, but on that particular day that fire
moved into Strathewen within six minutes," he said.
"No one envisaged the fire coming into Strathewen at 120km/h being driven by a
200km/h wind."
Mr Spooner suggested total fire ban days should be broadcast as warnings on the
television.
Outside court, he said those television broadcasts should include the fire rating
index, which was not mentioned the day before the February 7 fires.
He said he was asked not to talk about the index at the commission hearing.
The Fire Danger Index, which ranges from zero to 100, reached 328 on February 7.
Mr Spooner also criticised the lack of backburning in Strathewen.
He said there were areas that had not been subject to controlled burns during the 28
years he had lived there.
Mr Spooner, his wife and son were separated from his daughter-in-law as the convoy
of four cars drove toward Arthurs Creek and Hurstbridge after a tree fell across the
road behind her car. She drove to safety.
But Mr Spooner was then separated from his wife and son as they drove back toward
the family home and he headed toward Kinglake, where he sheltered in a primary
school.
He later learned his wife and son perished in the family home.