OZschwitz: Tree debris made town a 'death trap' thanks to Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment

TOWERING roadside gums and a lack of fuel reduction burning turned the major road that leads to the Victorian town of Flowerdale into a "death trap", a bushfire Royal Commission community meeting was told yesterday. Eight people died there during the fires.

Before the meeting - closed to the media - Flowerdale resident Pat Cowman said that while she had successfully defended her home of 35 years, she would never stay back and fight another fire because Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment regularly refused to clear tree debris.

Mrs Cowman attacked the department. "My house is right up the creek and the fire just roared around it. They [the DSE] just poison the fuel and leave it dry," she said. "We kept telling them to burn but they did nothing. [The Whittlesea-Yea Road] became a death trap during the fire. A mother and her two kids were lost there. You ask the DSE about that and they pass the buck to VicRoads."

When she first moved to Flowerdale, the Country Fire Association was allowed to burn around the road. That was no longer the case.

Residents said lack of communication was another problem during the fires. ABC Radio, their best source of information, was at least eight minutes behind the fire. This did not help some residents in the line of fire, as the blaze burnt 15 kilometres between Whittlesea and Kinglake in just six minutes.

Don Dawson, a water carrier of Kinglake West, said access to towns was a problem during the fires. A policeman denied him access on Black Saturday, when he was trying to bring a tank of water to besieged Flowerdale.

LNK

OZschwitz: Tree debris made town a 'death trap' thanks to Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment

OZschwitz: Tree debris made town a 'death trap' thanks to Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment

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