CFA controller 'had no warnings power'

A Country Fire Authority (CFA) operations manager who tried to issue warnings about
a fire in his region did not have the power to do so, the royal commission has
heard.
Jason Lawrence, who worked at the Kangaroo Ground control centre on Black Saturday,
told the commission he assumed the responsibilities of an incident controller but
was not authorised to issue alerts and could only perform restricted activities
because the centre was not "activated" as an incident control centre (ICC) until
February 8.
The Kangaroo Ground centre northeast of Melbourne remained under the control of
Kilmore, where the fire began, he told the commission on Thursday.
The commission has already heard evidence that fire tower operator Colleen Keating
spotted a "huge" smoke column about 90 metres high at 3.38pm (AEDT) on February 7.
But Mr Lawrence said he was unable to sign off on any fire warnings because he was
not working at a designated ICC.
Earlier in the week the commission heard from CFA information unit officer Serafina
Munns that at 5.20pm an urgent threat message was finally issued from Kangaroo
Ground, but only after it became apparent that the Kilmore control centre's
communication systems had failed.
In his statement submitted to the commission Mr Lawrence wrote: "I was of the
opinion that Kangaroo Ground should be assuming control of the fire in our area,
independently of Kilmore ICC."
But he admitted staff at Kangaroo Ground were "across multiple roles".
There were about 12-15 staff members working at the centre during the day, which
rose to more than 30 later in the day following offers of assistance from the
community, Mr Lawrence said.
When asked by Kilmore operations officer Peter Hayes at 4.50pm about Kangaroo
Ground's capacity to assist with the head of the fire moving into the area from
Saunders Road, Mr Lawrence said there were no resources to assist.
The commission hearings before Justice Bernard Teague continue.