Code red in VIC tommorow

[Sparksdisco]

Just getting my head arourd on what people will do during the code red tommorow

Is it correct that people will have to leave there homes tomorrow during the code red?

Is it ilagal to stay in your home? and will this be enforced?

Is ti the same for city areas as well?

I ask this coz its like the cyclones up here. you cant leave during the red alert but you can stay in your home.

Not living in VIC but my fam is and just curious on how it works?

[Grumbles]

No authority in Victoria has the power to force you to leave your home in a fire emergency. They can suggest, advise, beg or cajole but that is as far as it goes.

[350RRC]

Most people in Vic would have no idea either.

We live in a real nanny state here.................... problem is that nanny has dementia. :D

cheers, DL

[Sparksdisco]

No authority in Victoria has the power to force you to leave your home in a fire emergency. They can suggest, advise, beg or cajole but that is as far as it goes.


What about being in public areas?

What happens to toursts when there is a code red?

[miky]

Interesting...

I thought that there was now an Australia wide set of codes. I thought that "code red" didn't exist and that the word "CATASTROPHIC" was going to be used - at least it is in SA.

Perhaps Vic. just likes to be different? My take is that if the variouse States are not going to conform to a national standard people could get confused.
Just my take.

Edit: Just found that NSW is using CATASTROPHIC rather than "code red".

Mike

[midal]

Sparksdisco

Not really sure about the comparison between cyclones and bushfires however I can tell you that when a red alert is imminent for a cyclone they DO evacuate some areas of Karratha, and Wickham (particularly some caravan parks) due to storm surge tide issues. I have some mates in local SES and police and they have been saying for years that they wish they had the power to enforce it as some people simply did not wish to leave their property. This places the emergency staff in the position whereby they have to endanger their own lives to attempt a rescue should things go bad.
Like I said, I'm unsure of whether the new laws that now apply for bushfires, also apply for cyclones.
You mention that you are not allowed to leave your house on cyclone red alert and this is true, but we have prior notice that a red alert is going to be issued for cyclones and that is when the evacuations are carried out. Been there, done that. It's the same at your workplace in Hedland, on yellow alert the final site safety is carried out and most staff are then sent home.
Look at the carry-on 2 years ago with FMG when they did not evacuate their mining camp and 3 people subsequently got killed when the place was devastated....that led to all sorts of enquiries, finger pointing and changes in the laws for such events.

Cheers
Mick

[Grumbles]

Public land is a whole different ball game to private property.
Tourists - I guess it depends on where they are but in reality there are uncountable 'what if' scenarios here.

[rockyroad]

Dont kid yourself, if you tell the police to get stuffed when they tell you to leave they will find something to arrest you for, its much less paperwork to arrest you for something pathetic than it is for a bunch of bodies in a burnt out house !!

Seriously though if lessons have been learnt then most people who think they will be affected would have already loaded up their cars ready for evacuation and done all the preperations around the house that they possibly can. The really smart ones will leave early avoiding all the traffic and smoke and not get themselves into trouble on the roads.

Would be great to see nil fatailities this time around.

[loanrangie]

Its really only those living in rural or bushy areas that need to be on alert, although on live in the green wedge i am not concerned, my parents on the other hand 10 mins away live on 5 acres surrounded by bush.

[Hymie]

What they advise is that when a code red is declared, that anybody whose fire plan consists of running away, do it the night before or early that day so as to avoid last minute panic.
If your home and property is prepared and you are prepared, by all means stay at home. Don't stay and defend and then decide to POQ at the last minute, otherwise your body is likely to be found in your burnt out car, crashed at an intersection or trapped between two fallen trees.

[CraigE]

Look, the police dont really have the authority to make you leave, it is a good idea to listen to emergency services personnel as they dont get you to leave for no reason, but you need to be clear it is your choice and accept responsability for anything that occurs if you are not adequatelly prepared. If you live in a high risk area have a fire plan in place and consider installing fire tanks or a pool so you can reticulate the house etc if it gets close.
A fire plan does not mean just stay and fight with a garden hose. You should have safe shelter, multiple large fire blankest, fire protective clothing, a comprehensive first aid kit with lots of burn dressings,maybe an air supply, food, water, utility equipment and supplies and an alternate escape plan. You also need to work in conjunction with neighbours etc to know and share resources. I would also be evacuating anything that is irreplaceable.
Me, personally I would pack my family, animals and irreplaceable items and leave. I would obviously come back to assist fire services or SES fight it.

[hook]

Its really only those living in rural or bushy areas that need to be on alert, although on live in the green wedge i am not concerned, my parents on the other hand 10 mins away live on 5 acres surrounded by bush.


YES, People in Canberra thought the same thing a few years ago.

[Sparksdisco]

Just seems that some people think its right to stay in there homes and fight the fire. personaly if every one was out of the area then it would make the fire not a human threat and so firefighters would not need to risk themselvs to save others. then they could properly fight the fire rather than worrying about lives in the area. I dont care how trained and competent you are at fire fighting and how much water and equipnment you have to fight a fire its pureley not worth staying. if were sensible and thaught of others you would be getting the hell out of there and if you must help the CFA be doing it on there terms not being a vigalanty and going out on your own.

My two cents worth

Cheers

Sparks

[cewilson]

For those that don't know me, I've been doing this for 15 years and the reason I mention that is so you don't think I'm talking crap. Also, my comments are based solely on NSW, but are very similar over Australia.

There are the 6 ratings in NSW:

Low-Moderate;
High;
Very High;
Severe;
Extreme; and
Catastrophic.

Now how do these relate to our advice to the community. Basically it is all contained in the RFS website, especially in the 'bushfire survivial plan'. Please take the time to have a read of it as it contains some really good information and amy answer a lot of your questions.

From my viewpoint there has been a number of changes that we've made to training over the last 10 years - which has incorporated lessons learnt from Sydney, Canberra, Victoria and numerous other fires. The ratings above have been given the most publicity, but the other areas are the danger of smoke (being unburnt fuel) and what we call the 'urban interface' - which is where the bush meets the towns/cities.

The police are the ones that make the decision to evacuate, under advice from us. Do they have the power to remove you - well that's better answered by the police. But I don't think I'd be arguing too much with them if they were telling me to move.

The biggest point I'd like to point out please - we've worked out how to rebuild homes, replace properties, clean up damage - but once you're dead that is nothing we can do. :(

Cheers
Chris

[seano87]

Its really only those living in rural or bushy areas that need to be on alert, although on live in the green wedge i am not concerned, my parents on the other hand 10 mins away live on 5 acres surrounded by bush.

Embers can, and will fly many kilometres. It only takes one ember in leafy guttering and the fire has spread.

Besides, a ferocious enough fire will keep spreading in an urban environment too, going from house to house, particularly if in close proximity.

This is not directed at anyone specifically, to think you are safe just because you don't live right next to bushland is pretty naive in my mind. I'd just get out anyway, what is a day, or a couple of days away from home really worth if it has the potential to keep you and your family alive?

Seano

[robzilla]

mmm Code Red. better look up our official family fire plan...

"Turn Air Con up a notch" :D

just went outside before, doesn't feel 40s yet. (in melb) have there been any reports yet of fires braking out?

[CraigE]

Embers can, and will fly many kilometres. It only takes one ember in leafy guttering and the fire has spread.

Besides, a ferocious enough fire will keep spreading in an urban environment too, going from house to house, particularly if in close proximity.

This is not directed at anyone specifically, to think you are safe just because you don't live right next to bushland is pretty naive in my mind. I'd just get out anyway, what is a day, or a couple of days away from home really worth if it has the potential to keep you and your family alive?

Seano
Yep and that is the point many miss, embers can start fires many kilometres ahead, so you dont actually have to be close to the main fire to be at risk. People should start preparing well ahead of the fire arriving.
We have been relativelly lucky in Australia not to have had fires in polpulous areas become super destructive. It is a matter of time though, just look at the US.
We still dont seem to learn though with the same mistakes and arrogance shown year after year.

[dickyjoe]

Where is the fire?

This is all a load of crapp. We were affected from the fires last year in NE Victoria. I cannot see how see will work. Where are people to go? John Brumby's house?

[cewilson]

Where is the fire?

This is all a load of crapp. We were affected from the fires last year in NE Victoria. I cannot see how see will work. Where are people to go? John Brumby's house?

That part is wholey and solely up to you. The advice on a Code Red (Catastrophic) day is to leave early, however you can only do that IF a fire starts. I personally don't agree with leaving because of the chance of it - UNLESS it involves the elderly, young kids, national parks, OR if there is only one way in/out of your place of residence.


The advice that is getting sent out, is for basically freak weather. In which case we will not be able to stop it at all, and may not even be able to save houses. Our whole aim will be to prevent loss of life until the weather changes to something that we can deal with.

[Hall]

I`ve lived in the Dandenongs all my life so have seen a few fires.The last one was only a couple of k`s away.We were asked to (ever so politely) f@#k of as they were setting up trucks in the streets.Was a tough moment when you are leaving and don`t know if you will be back.Have learn`t a bit about the nature of fire since last summer.Scared me a bit too.Was doing community work in the Chruchhill area and learnt that the fire there was travelling at over 300 k`s an hour and that the fire was spotting up to 30 k`s away.Now given that our local fire was only about 2 k`s away it would have not taken that long if the fire got some speed up to give us a lot of grief.So I`m now a whole lot more interested in the fire warnings.Whife even before last summer fires and this summer has moved photos,documents and stuff to a safe place.Our house is not easy to defend,so we will leave if the need arises.There does need to be a bit of sensibility to leaving.Taking in the fact that we have had a lot more rain recently,so the ground and bush is a lot more moist,today the wife stayed home.But if in a few weeks and no,or little rain and another code red or worse then I`d be pushing for here to leave and I`m betting there would not be much pushing.If it was a weekend I`d be gone too.At least we have a place to stay.That is one area that the government has not addressed.Great to tell people to leave,but it would really help and encourage people to leave if they had some were to go,as not every one has a friend or family that is willing to take them in.But at least so far it`s all quiete.
Cheers Hall

[HUE166]

Victoria is a funny state in many ways but I'd like to say that the VIC DSE are the most profesional and organised initial attack organisation on bushfires (wildfires as they call them) of any state in Australia. The fact that we had the Black Saturday fires last year is not necessarily a reflection on th ability of the DSE but rather an illustration of the worsening fire seasons. Climate change (and I'm not a subscriber to all the carbon emissions rubish) is seeing the seasons becoming atmospherically more conducive to fire risk.

I think all states need to increase their fuel reduction policies (and not during fire season) and all could also fine tune their public relations policies a tadd too.

NSW is improving at a rate of knots after being relieved of P/C as chief. There is still a long way to go though. The ACT obviously depend on VIC and NSW.

Good luck to all involved in and dependent on the fighting of bushfires this season!!!