CFA 'encouraged doomed family to stay'

A woman who lost her son and his family in the Black Saturday bushfires says the
Country Fire Authority (CFA) contributed to their deaths by encouraging them to stay
and defend their home in an indefensible area.
Joan Davey believes her son Robert and his family had intended to leave before a
fire threatened their area, until they became involved in the local CFA and began
accumulating firefighting equipment.
"We will lament forever that our children interacted with the CFA," she told the
bushfires royal commission on Tuesday.
The bodies of Robert Davey, 36, his wife Natasha, 33, and their two daughters,
Jorja, three, and Alexis, eight months, were found in the bathroom of their Bald
Spur Road home in Kinglake after the devastating firestorm swept through on February
7.
Ms Davey said her son's home was built of cedar shingle with a tin roof and would
have reacted to the blaze like "a house in a fireplace".
She said Bald Spur Road was the highest point in Kinglake and many of the houses
were built of combustible material.
"I believe that people in Bald Spur Road had an expectation of survival that was
beyond reality," she told the commission.
"Somebody should have recognised that Bald Spur Road was indefensible, totally
indefensible."
Ms Davey said she believed that when the family attended CFA meetings they were
encouraged to save their house in the event of a fire, despite its location in a
heavily wooded area.
She said the family's opinion of their abilities changed and they had gained false
confidence.
"If there had been a row of CFA trucks on Bald Spur Road, everybody (still) would
have died there," she said.
The commission on Tuesday heard that there is currently no statutory authority in
Victoria responsible for issuing warnings to residents threatened by bushfires.
Victoria Police deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe told the inquiry fire services
gave updates directly to ABC Radio on February 7, but there was no statutory
authority in existing legislation with the responsibility for issuing warnings.
But, he added, warnings must originate from the fire agencies, the CFA and
Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE).
"They should be aware of what is occurring with regards to the fires and they are
the ones who are in the position to give that advice," he said.
"Victoria Police can't because we are not fire behaviourist specialists."
However, Mr Walshe said, police could play a role in alerting communities of fire
danger in future by liaising directly with television stations to broadcast a
warning.
A banner running across the bottom of the television screen was another device that
could be used, he said.
Meanwhile, commission head Justice Bernard Teague asked Mr Walshe whether police
would review the actions of officers who evacuated about 200 residents from
Marysville before the blaze bore down on the town.
He said if a tree had fallen down or the road had been blocked as residents followed
police out of town, officers may have been responsible for many deaths.
Mr Walshe said the risk of taking such action would be reviewed, but his officers in
Marysville had acted out of a duty of care and based on information from the local
CFA that Buxton Road was clear.
The commission also heard spot fire weather warnings for the Murrindindi blaze that
obliterated Marysville, killing 34 people, were not requested by fire authorities
until the morning after the firestorm tore through the town.