A recent survey revealed that a large number of people in Victoria were ignoring the fire safety warnings issued by the authorities. The reports compiled by Country Fire Authority (CFA), Emergency Services Commissioner (ESC) and RMIT University, showed that almost half of the people in the state’s highest fire risk areas would not leave their home on a catastrophic, or code red, fire danger day. Many of the residents quizzed in the survey were interested to stay and defend their properties despite the leave early warning given by the authorities. The reports further show that only 15 percent of the people had changed their bushfire survival plan. About 25 percent people would stay in their homes on code red days and only leave if they saw fire. About 78 percent of people surveyed who stayed to defend their homes on Black Saturday told that they would do it again.

In Queensland the newly introduced Emergency Alert fire warning system through land phones and mobile phones have created a lot a trouble and panic among tourists and non residents. The warning system sends text messages to mobile phones and voice messages to land phones according to the billing address of the subscriber. The system at present can not send any warning messages to tourists and non residents who normally don’t have any billing address in the area where they are travelling through.      Acting Premier Paul Lucas, said that the Emergency Alert is an additional warning system and did not replace “tried and true methods” of listening to radio and TV announcements. “It would be far more satisfactory to be working for anyone on a mobile phone in that area,” he requested. The Queensland attracts a lot of tourists and as such an effective solution is needed to counter this trouble.

The internet service around Western Australia was affected today because of a bushfire in and around a major electricity substation. The fire around Cannington Terminal Substation had caused the loss of four transmission lines. This caused about 6000 residents to loss their internet connections temporarily. A spokesman of the Fire and Emergency Services said that the blaze broke out near the corner of Bent and Oaks streets in Cannington.The fire was fairly extensive but later contained. The Western Power spokeswoman Marisa Chapman said that the power was later restored and the authorities were monitoring the fire closely to determine any further damage to the network.

The weather conditions in Victoria are threatening the public and the fire authorities to prepare for the difficult period. About 30000 fire fighters are there in Victoria who see the conditions as great challenge. At the same time threat from Arsonists is another concern that also needs to be dealt with. The police have arrested two suspected arsonists in Melbourne last Friday. They requested an appeal to the people to watch any suspected behavior.

“Conditions are varying in parts of the state from very high to severe to extreme, and Monday will be a challenging day, “said Bruce Esplin,Emergency Services Commissioner,Victoria.Since the first anniversary of the last Black Saturday is just a few weeks ahead, people are more nervous and concerned these days.”It’ll be a challenge for all Victorians because it’s the worst period since Black Saturday,” he said.

The Country Fire Services (CFS) has launched RSS feed services in their website to increase the availability and functionality of bushfire information.

“Alerting the public to potential bushfire risks the day before, and of actual fire threats once a fire has started, is critical to give residents the information they need to take the appropriate action to PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE.” said Mr.Euan Ferguson, Chief Officer, and Country Fire Services. At present the CFS places total fire ban and fire danger rating information in their website www.cfs.sa.gov.au which the visitors can look.

“Now we have the added benefit of RSS feeds which basically pushes information out to subscribers who can access it more readily on their mobile phones or computers at a frequency which suits their needs.  Mr. Ferguson said. To receive RSS feeds you need a feed reader and must subscribe to CFS feeds from the website.

Currently two RSS feeds are active; one contains all active current fire warnings with links to each individual warning message. The second contains all current non-metropolitan incidents and a direct link to the incidents summary page.