INFERNO - The Day Victoria Burned
Foreword
On February 7, 2009, 173 Victorians perished, most burned to death, in a state that makes an ostentatious
fetish of protecting public safety. Victorians accept stiff fines for driving just a few ticks over the
speed limit. They cannot ride bicycles without approved mandatory helmets, or can tradesmen go about their
business unless they are wearing iridescent vests. In restaurants, requests for bags are likely to be
rejected because of concerns about legal liability.
Cutting the road toll, preventing head injuries,
reducing the incidence of food poisoning : all the above measures, we are told, are for the common good. But
protection from bushfires? These massive and regular destroyers of life and property have avoided the sort
of attention lavished on day-old sushi. When the day that has come to be called Black Saturday finally
ended, the Victorian government, government agencies and emergency protocols, came under the most intense
scrutiny, a scrutiny that saw Justice Bernard Teague's Royal Commission make 51 recommendations for change,
with one guiding direction, 'to enhance the protection of human lives'. The rote response from those in
authority was about looking forward, not looking back; February 7 was, they said, a unique event, nobody
could have foreseen it. But none of these words rang with the faintest echo of common sense and
experience...
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