Demand for action in wake of report into Australian bushfires

Last Updated: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:28:00 +1000

Communities affected by Australia's worst ever bushfires are demanding swift action in response to today's release of the official inquiry.

The so-called "Black Saturday" fires in February 2009 claimed 173 lives and razed more than two thousand homes in the state of Victoria.

The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission has handed down 67 recommendations.

They include a comprehensive approach to evacuation, an almost quadrupling of controlled burning as well as a long-term strategy to replace many of Victoria's ageing overhead powerlines with underground cables.

It also recommends the establishment of an independent Victorian fire commissioner.

The commission also identified serious deficiencies in leadership and policy on the day of the fires.

But bushfire survivor Roger Cook, fears many won't have learnt a lesson from Black Saturday, despite the report's recommendations.

"I haven't met anybody in my local area who feels confident that it won't happen again because we're all rebuilding in my street and the same blocks in houses not very much different," he says.

"I thought it was going to cost me a lot more money to rebuild my house, but it's going to cost an extra few thousand dollars. But it's not going, to me, represent anything more fireproof than I had before."