THE Country Fire Authority will tell two Wimmera councils this week whether it has approved Safer Spots in their municipalities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
CFA manager of community safety for the Midlands and Wimmera Michael Boatman said the CFA would send letters to Hindmarsh and West Wimmera councils with assessment results.
Mr Boatman said most of the suggested spots had passed the CFA's assessment criteria.
"We'll be working with the councils when there is a place which hasn't been approved to find an appropriate place," he said.
Mr Boatman said the process took time because the CFA used a computer modelling tool to determine whether a nominated Safer Spot was appropriate or not.
"The main criteria is about the distance to vegetation or potential radiant heat of a building or space," he said.
"We will send out the results of our assessment and then it's up to the councils whether they adopt a township protection plan."
The CFA named 52 towns across Victoria in October which were a priority to develop township protection plans, including Dimboola, Apsley, Edenhope and Harrow.
At present, St Arnaud and Halls Gap are the only towns in the Wimmera with approved Safer Spots because they were listed in the State Government's initial list of 54 high risk towns.
Hindmarsh director of assets Andrew Bainbridge said Hindmarsh had reviewed a draft plan and recommended some modifications.
"One of those important issues is the Neighbourhood Safer Spot which has been identified as the recreation reserve at Dimboola," he said.
Mr Bainbridge said he was concerned the process had not been finalised yet.
"Part of that is because the Region 17 announcement of the high risk towns came significantly after the State Government announcement so the whole process started significantly later than the other towns," he said.
"It's about the capacity of these organisations to process everything, it's a reflection of straight-out human resource capacity of all these organisations.
"In a collective sense it's a very big task to get around to all of these places by this summer."
West Wimmera Shire Council chief executive Jim McKay said the council was waiting to see whether a site at Edenhope would be approved.
"As soon as it's been confirmed we'll be notifying people in the municipality," he said.
"The new regime though is that people have to have a fire plan of their own and have to make a decision before they end up at the place of last resort.
"It might be that they have to leave and go right out of the district."
Horsham Rural City Council and Yarriambiack Shire Council did not have towns listed in the CFA's high risk towns but both councils are in the process of establishing township protection plans and Neighbourhood Safer Spots.
