By MELISSA MEEHAN
HILLS residents have slammed lycra-clad weekend cyclists for ignoring fire danger warnings in the Dandenong Ranges.
Roger Willsher has lived in the Dandenongs for more than 43 years.
He has been involved in fire-fighting for many of those years, and he and his wife are auxiliary members of their local brigades.
“On Saturday (9 February), we were emailed by the CFA to evacuate from our home due to a forecast extreme fire danger rating for the Sunday,” Mr Willsher said.
“We left The Patch early Sunday morning, the temperature was already exceeding 30 degrees and the fire danger index was at 85.”
Mr Willsher said both he and his wife were gobsmacked by what they witnessed while they themselves were evacuating.
“Groups of lycra-clad cyclists on bicycles were climbing the hills that we were told to evacuate,” he said.
“And then others we knew chose to stay at home.”
He said the CFA had made residents very aware that it would take hours to get off the mountain in case of fire, and that the traffic would cause huge problems for firefighters to get to a fire if started.
“To mix CFA trucks, fleeing residents and cyclists on our narrow twisting two lane roads… do we need to wait until this fatal scenario actually occurs?”
Mr Willsher has called on the State Government to ban irresponsible visitors from endangering themselves and others by stopping their entry to the Hills on days similar to 9 February.
“Police road blocks should ban all vehicles driven by non-residents,” he said.
Last week, members of the CFA spoke out about the danger of fitness junkies using the 1000 Steps on days of high fire danger.
Do you think visitors to the region need to be educated to stay away from the Dandenongs on days of Total Fire Ban? We’d love to hear from you. Email editor@yvnews.com.au
