I don't think they did anything wrong. I don't know all the facts. They had a lookout, like you are supposed to have, and he told them to get out, but the fire blew up too fast.
Perhaps the emphasis should be on getting landowners, govt. and private, to thin out and do some prevention work so fires won't get so big. Thinning and controlled burning work. The former takes labor and money, the latter causes residents to complain about the smoke. Controlled burns sometimes become uncontrolled.
What do you do when people live in places that are prone to burning? Maybe we should just not put people in such places to defend the houses? What do you do? When I was going on fires, we were told that our agency does not protect houses. That was for the fire departments to do. Things have changed.
We ask these questions every fire season. Then the rains and snow come and everything is forgotten. This tragedy ought to make folks think about where they live and what they could do, but it won't. We'll lose more people in years to come. I'm guilty too. I have trees closer to the house than I should, but I want my privacy. Our area isn't very burny, but it can burn if conditions are just right. If I lived on the drier side of the mountains, I'd definitely be thinning and pruning. That's what it takes. Perhaps we need to think of it as saving lives instead of fire prevention?
I hear what you are saying. Too often good men and women are placed in harms way to protect an unknowing and uncaring public who expect it, by a government who lacks the gumption to enact and enforce rules that are required. Lessons are not learned and the cycle starts again.
I remember well being on a large fire that had a real set of legs. Any hope of controlling it in the prevailing conditions was futile, so every unit ended up on Structure Protection. I was the leader of a crew of four, all of us experienced, so we were tasked with a particularly difficult structure. Long story short, we saved the structure and the owner was grateful etc etc. He was going to clear a buffer zone around his home and all sorts of things. Well here we are 7 years later and I went back to the area for a look. The property is more overgrown than ever and I would rate it as borderline undefendable. I asked myself "why did we bother at all". Sooner or later, another fire will start and another crew will put themselves in harms way for a civilian who obviously will not learn.
As a result of the inquiry into the Black Saturday fires in Victoria - 177 deaths I believe, the Tasmania Fire Service along with other State fire Agencies, has changed its focus. On days of catastrophic fire danger, our focus is no longer to put large wildfires out, instead it is to provide timely and accurate information to facilitate the evacuation and relocation of people in imminent danger. Every Brigade has its own list of vulnerable people, sick, elderly or disabled etc within its brigade area and will pay particular attention to them as well as assets such as hospitals, schools and nursing homes. Communities have identified safe refuges that can be defended if need be and are encouraged to relocate to these if threatened by fire. Everything else can be replaced, life cannot.
All I hope is that from tragedies like this, lessons are learned and remembered before others lose their lives.