I am a smoker and I take offence at Clean Up Australia chairman Ian Kiernan saying:

Smokers have been told not to throw out their cigarette butts in the wake of Victoria’s devastating bushfires.

Cigarette butts are by far the most common item of litter in Australia, a survey has found.

Clean Up Australia chairman Ian Kiernan says it’s a serious fire risk – and he wants smokers fined for littering.

There has been no suggestion that the bushfires were caused by cigarette butts!

We smokers are socially downtrodden and many of us will continue to throw butts away (just to spite the likes of Ian Kiernan) so why not try and eliminate the cause – ban synthetic filters that are not biodegradable – or ban filters in cigarettes altogether.  The organic tobacco and paper are both biodegradable and actually put carbon back in the soil.

He is also calling for a federal scheme of refunds for recyclable containers, like one in South Australia.  What about a 10 cent refund on cigarette butts.  That would soon solve the problem.

Defend your home or evacuate

The CFA rightly promote the concept of everyone having a bushfire plan.  They also tell people to decide whether they will stay and defend their property or evacuate.  The reality is that none of us are qualified to make such decisions and this advice gives people a false sense of security.

As the tragedy of the bushfires unfolds, it disturbs me to see footage of people in shorts and thongs defending their homes. We watch as residents take comfort in filling their roof spouts with water or filling up the kids wading pool and then waiting for the fire to approach.  That comfort could well place their lives in jeopardy.

In the 2006 bushfires, an eighty year old man on a property at Whitlands asked me, in my capacity as a CFA officer, whether he should stay and defend or should he leave.

He had a dam full of water, a massive petrol driven pump with 100 metres of 75mm diameter fire hose all laid out ready for action.  Reasonable preparation one would think.

The reality was that he didn’t stand a chance with such facilities.  A four inch hose full of water is completely unmanageable.  It really needed a team of men to control it.

His backup plan was to retreat to a huge enclosed tin shed should the fire come in fast. That, most likely, would have been fatal.  As the metal heats up in a bushfire, the beams expand and invariably, the roof falls down inside the walls.  I was able to convince him to leave.

Life is too precious to risk in a bushfire and I believe the CFA advice needs reviewing.

You can view THE LIVE FIRE MAp here to see the current situation

Related articles

• Black Saturday; 65-100 Victorians Dead ? (benbarren.com)
• At least 108 dead in Australia inferno (guardian.co.uk)

Premier takes action

Premier John Brumby says Victoria may need to review its bushfire policy of  ’stay and defend or leave early’ in light of the state’s death toll.

He said the government and authorities’ long-standing approach of advising people to have a bushfire plan ready to either stay to defend their homes or leave well before the fire became a threat had in many cases not saved people at the weekend.

‘I think when the time comes to examine in-depth all of the issues that occurred on Saturday, obviously fire policy will be one of those areas,’ Mr Brumby told Fairfax Radio Network.  more …