Volunteer firefighters are being urged not to blame themselves for a devastating fire disaster, while a state premier’s police are being slammed for fleeing angry fire-affected residents.
The easing conditions allowed Victorian fire authorities to focus on containment and burnout operations a week later after bushfires broke out across the state.
More than 700 buildings have been destroyed or significantly damaged, including 228 houses and 450 outbuildings.
Eleven major fires continued to burn Wednesday afternoon after blackening more than 400,000 hectares.
It was important that volunteer firefighters did not blame themselves for the losses, Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan said.
“I speak to our volunteers every day, they are hurting… they blame themselves for what is happening in these communities,” he told reporters in Castlemaine, near Bendigo, on Wednesday.
“The reality is there was nothing they could have done other than warn the community, get the community out of harm’s way and fight the fire where it was safe to do so.”
Fronting the media, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday announced a $100 million support package, including $40 million in subsidies to fire-affected primary producers.
She was also questioned because she had not met with residents outside the local health service in Alexandra, in the state’s northeast, a day earlier.
The Prime Minister left through the back door of the building after a mob of angry locals gathered outside to demand answers over the funding of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and disruptions to the city’s NBN broadband internet.
Locals shouted “shame” at Allan’s staffers when they realized she had left without standing in front of the crowd, while some surrounded a car they mistakenly believed was carrying the Prime Minister.
Allan made no apologies when asked Wednesday why she didn’t meet the crowd.
“I met residents of the local community in Alexandra, community members who I could thank for the way they supported their community,” Allan said.
“I will continue to do that as if we were here in Castlemaine and Harcourt today.”
She said the community’s anger was caused by misinformation.
“It just adds to the grief and trauma… leaving people misinformed,” she said.
But Victorian Nationals leader Danny O’Brien said questions about the CFA budget were raised “organically” by volunteers and community members on the ground, and not by the opposition.
“I understand she doesn’t want to meet angry people outside a hospital in Alexandra, but she also has to recognize that those people are angry because they’re not getting answers,” he said.
NBN Local Victoria head Emily Peel assured Alexandra residents the Longwood fire was responsible for a cut in one of the cables and confirmed all services were operational on Wednesday.
The Longwood fire caused the most damage of all fires, destroying 143 homes.
Cattle rancher Maxwell Hobson died in the fire and remains the only person in the state to die this wildfire season.
The massive wildfire is believed to be caused by a trailer that shot off sparks along the Hume Freeway, but authorities say the cause remains under investigation.
“Such investigations are complex,” a Victoria Police spokesperson told the Australian Associated Press on Wednesday.
Heffernan indicated that the length of the grass along the highway would have made little difference.
“Under those conditions, the drought, the wind and the fire would still pass through,” he said.
He warned the community the threat was not over, with the fire danger in Victoria expected to peak in February.
“There are still many weeks of fire danger ahead.”
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