People leave Homes Even for Low Fire Threat

During the past two months several people have tried to leave their homes even for small bushfire warnings in New South Wales. This could result in destruction of millions of dollars worth of property that might otherwise be defended and saved. In many cases people plan to leave their home at the first threat of fire. This trend was further deepened after the introduction of catastrophic fire danger ratings since last year. According to New South Wales firefighters, an overwhelming majority of people had abandoned their homes even during the low intensity fire.

”Since August, there’s been a very noticeable attitude in communities just to simply leave,” said Rob Rogers, an assistant commissioner with the NSW Rural Fire Service.

”We could end up with quite a high property loss,” he said. And if most residents fled there would be fewer people to douse embers left by the main fire front, increasing the potential for fresh blazes, Mr. Rogers said.

The fire warning system in Australia has changed slightly after the Black Saturday fires with the new fire danger ratings and also with the introduction of the new Emergency Alert, a new telephone based fire warning system that alert people through land phones and mobile phones At this stage people plan to go to the Neighbourhood safer places even though the authorities insist it as a last resort when other means to escape and defend fail. As such the authorities are planning to review the system.

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