A severe fire danger rating and a total fire ban has been declared
for the Mallee, Wimmera, north central and northern country districts.
While for the rest of the state the fire danger rating is ''very high''
or ''high''.
In an interview with Fairfax Media, Mr Ferguson expressed
concern that recent wet summers had dimmed
''We still think there's a troubling level of complacency out
there,'' he said. ''Generally our survey says that there's about a
third of the population [who] hear the message, understand the risk and
largely do the right thing. There's about a third of the population who
hear the message, probably don't have a [fire] plan and are only partly
prepared for the fire season.
''And then there's about a third of the population, and I've got to
say a lot of these are Gen X, Gen Y-type people … and it's just noise to
them. It's just not on their radar screen.''
While Victoria was facing different conditions to the 2008-09
summer, when more than 2100 homes were destroyed by bushfires, Mr
Ferguson illustrated the threat to homes during a typical fire season by
pointing to recent research covering many decades on home losses due to
bushfires.
''In similar seasons there'd been losses down to zero, but up
to 24 homes, lost in a normal fire season. So we might be lucky, we
might dodge the bullet. But we have an expectation that even in a normal
fire season that we're going to lose homes somewhere,'' he said.
''Whilst we're saying it's a normal fire season, we are one
of the most fire-prone places on earth. And a normal fire season for us
still means lots of fires, [and] a proportion of those fires we won't be
able to control until the weather conditions change.''
Mr Ferguson also expressed concern that some people were
still prepared to leave it to the last minute to make a decision to
leave a house threatened by fire.
''What we're saying is, at the first sign [of fire], you
should leave. Or if it's a code red, or extreme, or a severe day, you
should consider leaving the night before,'' he said.
''Many people fail to understand that they live in an area
where their life, their family, their home, their property, are at real
risk of bushfire. And they fail to understand what makes them at risk of
bushfire, and they fail to understand what they can do to mitigate that
risk.''
Speaking at Essendon Airport on Friday to mark the arrival of
the giant firefighting helicopter ''Elvis'', Deputy Premier Peter Ryan
highlighted the potential for dangerous grassfires this summer.
''We have had a lot of rain, there has been a lot of growth
and so it is those grassfires which probably represent the greatest
threat,'' he said.
Mr Ryan urged people to have a fire plan and to ''remember
the basic message going in to this summer - if you are in two minds,
then leave. Because if you wait, it may be too late.''
Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the ''scorcher''
forecast for Saturday should act as an important reminder for people to
think about fire preparations. ''Are their properties in the right
condition, do they have a fire plan, is there anything else they should
be talking to their neighbor or their friends and family about?'' she
said.
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