CFAtakes on clearing

By Tania Martin
THREE veteran firefighters fear government bureaucracy is stopping hills residents from fully preparing for the upcoming fire season.
And they say firefighters have taken things into their own hands and have been clearing what they say are fire danger areas.
Alan Marks, Chip Fearon and John Peacock fear Selby could be in the direct line of fire.
The former Selby CFA members said more should be done to prepare roadside reserves and people should be able to clear up their nature strips.
Mr Fearon said the council was restricting what people could do to prepare.
Mr Peacock said the council was burying their heads in the sand.
“They have people there who put greater emphasis on the trees and roadside vegetation and its non-removal than on human life,” he said
Mr Fearon said one of the biggest concerns was that Belgrave-Gembrook Road was the only way in or out of the town and nothing had been done to clear away roadside fuels.
“VicRoads has a big responsibility to make sure carriageways are safe and they don’t do it,” he said.
The trio are campaigning to educate residents on the dangers and calling for the local council and VicRoads to do more to clean up the fuels on the ground.
They recently took the Mail on a tour outlining the areas of concern along Nation and Blackhill roads and Karen Street in Selby.
“People are absolutely terrified of what can happen this summer,” Mr Peacock said.
However, they said the Selby CFA was doing some great work with the council to start cleaning up the area.
Selby CFA volunteer Neville Aldham said the brigade was working in the background to reduce the fuel load.
“We saw the need to do something, there were a lot of obstacles to get through but we are working on them,” he said.
Mr Aldham said the brigade had spent the last few weekends on cleaning up areas of Nation road. He said the work started more than eight weeks ago.
Shire of Yarra Ranges mayor Len Cox refutes the veteran fireys claims saying there was a lot of work being done on the ground.
He said there had been an integrated approach between the council, CFA, DSE and other key agencies.
Cr Cox said the council’s road side slashing program would commence next month and run through to December.
“This is strategically timed to follow the spring growing period and will be completed before the peak fire danger period,” he said.
“Around 1500 kilometres of roadside have been identified for slashing. Many of these roads have been identified in conjunction with the CFA.”
The council has also invited the CFA to suggest any additional roads that should be included from a strategic fire break point of view. Cr Cox said the council would be spending more than $700,000 on its annual slashing program.
The Mail contacted VicRoads but was unable to get a response before going to print.