INQ201

Local residents must take a degree of shared responsibility to prepare their properties by reducing the risk of bushfire around their properties and planning for a bushfire emergency.

FESA seek legal and policing advice regarding the policy to leave residents who chose not to evacuate in a declared ‗dangerous area‘ after a bushfire.

FESA should review the size of the existing pre-formed IMT to include additional Information and Planning officers and increased resourcing of scribes and management support for all Level 3 incidents.

FESA needs to place greater priority on the appointment of Safety Advisors to Level 3 incidents as is reflected in WESTPLAN Bushfire.

Noting existing legislative and policy arrangements, there is merit in considering options for the future management of Level 3 fires in Local Government areas.

FESA and DEC need to appoint accredited Level 3 IC‘s based on experience, competency and currency.

FESA should continue to develop with DEC and Local Government a number of rostered pre-formed IMT‘s available throughout the fire season, regardless of predicted weather.

Review the command function of the MROC for Level 3 incidents when the SOC is activated.

FESA must actively manage the transition to WAERN and provide alternative means for regional crews to communicate when in areas where WAERN is not operated.

All responding crews and the incident command appointments should adopt a ‘Size Up‘ reporting format.

Initial StateAlert messages should provide timely broad advice to a wide audience authorised by the SDD, while subsequent messages may provide more detail.

FRS fire appliance allocation and training needs to be reviewed to enhance offensive bushfire capability within the metropolitan area.

To provide Level 3 IC‘s (and FESA) with a level of confidence and to maintain currency across the pool of accredited IC‘s, regular exercising of IC‘s and Level 3 IMT‘s is required.

There are a range of opportunities identified from reviewing the three fires that will improve coordination between FESA and DEC, requiring limited resources, potentially generating some efficiencies and reflecting a joint, tenure blind approach to fire management in WA.