Great Southern authorities urging residents to prepare for rapidly approaching bushfire season

The Great Southern’s fire chief has urged people to prepare a bushfire-readiness plan ahead of what is predicted to be another busy season.

Less than 2 per cent of West Australians have recorded a bushfire-ready plan in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ system — a statistic DFES Great Southern Supt Wayne Green says is “disappointing” considering 90 per cent of the State is at risk of bushfire.

Mr Green urged people to fill out a bushfire-ready plan.

“It’s never too late to prepare, and now’s the perfect time,” he said.

“We’ve had a couple of fast-running fires outside of summer as we lead into summer.

“So make sure that you do take that 15 minutes to sit down with your family, prepare them, yourselves, and your property, and be mindful of what your neighbours are up to as well — especially if they need some assistance.”

In the Great Southern, the city of Albany has a career fire and rescue service but the rest of the region is covered by volunteers.

“So by communities not being prepared, they actually put their volunteers, their own community members, at risk because they’ll go above and beyond when they know that there’s life involvement or potential life involvement, to go and try and keep these communities safe,” Mr Green said.

Emergency services had been working hard to prepare the region for the upcoming fire season, Mr Green said.

“We’ve spent millions across the Great Southern . . . about $400,000 each year on average gets spent across the Great Southern and we will always spend that, and we’ll probably put our hand out for more if there’s leftover from the mitigation activity funding,” he said.

“We’ve got a really good base of experienced staff in the region.

“We’ve got extremely well-trained volunteers right across the region, and our fire and rescue — they’re willing to go out and assist during events or even in preparing strike teams on bad weather days.”

Despite the preparation, Mr Green said the region would always be at risk.

“But we’re hoping that we’ll be able to utilise those scars that are in the landscape to be able to minimise how long these fires are burning for and they don’t turn into campaign fires,” he said.

A bushfire-readiness plan asks a series of questions, ranging from the location of the property to the point when the decision is made to stay and defend or leave.

When thinking about how to defend a property, Water Corporation Great Southern regional manager Adrian Stewart said residents should not rely on their home water supply in the event of a fire.

“Our water supply network is designed to provide drinking water to the community, not fight bushfires, and staying to defend against a bushfire requires more equipment and planning than many people realise,” he said.

“That includes having an independent water supply of at least 20,000 litres and a generator with enough fuel to power a water pump.”

Minister for Emergency Services Stephen Dawson joined Mr Green in urging Great Southerners to be ready, prepare, and “do their bit” for the upcoming bushfire season.

“It’s really important for Western Australians, wherever they are, to be ready for the upcoming bushfire season,” he said.

“The State is investing significantly into new aircraft, and this season we’ll have two new Black Hawk helicopters on top of the two we’ve already got.

“And on top of our large air tanker, we’ll have about 38 aerial craft available in the DBCA fleet to help put out fires.

“But they are only tools in the toolbox — it’s the aircraft and the fireys on the ground that do the work, but it’s also really important for Western Australians, and people in the Great Southern, to do their own bit.

“We’re asking them to have a bushfire plan — it takes less than 15 minutes to fill in a plan, but it could save your life and the lives of your family members.”

There were 177 bushfires in the Great Southern during the 2023-24 bushfire season, which runs from December 1-March 31, of which nine were deliberately lit or suspicious — a significant drop from 26 in the 2022-23 season, when there were 174 bushfires.

Of the rest of the fires, 28 were caused by lightning, 21 by vehicles, 14 by powerlines, and the remaining 105 by escaped burn-offs, campfires, reignitions of previous fires, and undetermined causes.

The My Bushfire Plan service is free and available online, on the App Store and Google Play.