DEC’s Tonka Truck’s head East
Tony Pedro 27-05-2011
Surely we as West Australians can do better than send Bush Fire Suppression Equipment designed in the 1960’s to help the Victorians defend themselves from bushfires.
The Department of Environment and Conservation reported recently to have sent two of their Fire Trucks to help the Victorians upgrade the design of their suppression equipment. These light weight 4 x 4’s carrying 2,700lt of water are unable to access the bush without earthmoving equipment being on site. The delay in the arrival of this equipment is often the cause of small containable bush fires developing into major wild fires, threatening lives and property.
Why not take advantage of already designed and built fire suppression equipment capable of self accessing the bush fitted with a blade and carrying vastly more water, and water cannon etc. The forest industry use these heavy duty 4x4 or 6x6 transporters to deliver logs to roading that can then be accessed by trucks from the mills etc.
As has already been demonstrated this late model equipment can easily be fitted with tank, pump and tipper carrying 6,000lt to 10,000lt a cab mounted water cannon and thereby becoming a highly effective Bush Fire Suppression Machine, compared with a 4x4 truck carrying 2,700lt and unable to leave a track. As yet DEC or FESA have shown no interest in this new generation of life saving equipment, despite being offered the design rights free.
Why not take a more positive, intelligent position and get much better at high quality surveillance and rapid attack with appropriate equipment, rather than the state government’s present position of getting better and better at lighting bush fires with their massive prescribed burning program leaving little funding for genuine high quality suppression.
