The findings and recommendations of the Myer fire coronial inquest can be downloaded HERE.

The Coroners recommendations in the Myer inquest are highly appropriate but his findings are somewhat less so. However, there is a much bigger issue here and that is under resourcing in the Tasmania Fire Service. Firefighters do the best they can in all circumstances often under enormous pressure, but they are only human.

In the end the whole Tasmanian community is at fault. Local governments regularly complain about having to collect fire service levies even though they make a tidy profit out of doing so.  Rural communities are massively cross-subsidised by city folk yet they pay far lower fire service levies. The firefighting industry simply isn’t on the radar for many politicians.

The United Firefighters Union has been complaining bitterly for decades about inadequate human and physical resources in the Tasmania Fire Service.  In some of our cities we do not have enough crews to allow us to safely follow Standard Operating Procedures, thus putting our members at unacceptable risk.  Ongoing career firefighter training is grossly inadequate.  Inadequate numbers of career firefighters are employed to support volunteers.  Totally inappropriate firefighting vehicles are being commissioned in the wrong places just to save money.

On top of all this Tasmania’s career firefighters are expected to respond to all of the same sorts of fires, hazardous materials incidents and specialist rescues as their counterparts in mainland urban brigades, but with a fraction of the human resources.  Tasmanian career firefighters also have to be highly competent in bush firefighting whereas mainland urban brigades generally don’t.

There is no point blaming firefighters.  For decades they have been asked to do far too much with far too little.  The responsibility for that situation rests with the whole Tasmanian community.