AMONG THE TUMULT of emotions experienced by Eyre Peninsula residents in the aftermath of last week's fatal bushfires is a horrible sense of déjà vu. The disaster was like a ghastly re-enactment of the Tulka fires four years ago that could have destroyed the little beachside village south of Port Lincoln. The circumstances are eerily similar - a bushfire in a defined area leaps away on the first day and local CFS crews battle to extinguish it. Neither fire would appear to have been fully controlled in the early stages. In both events, pilots from a local aerial spraying company were knocked back when they offered to water bomb the area, at their own risk and the company's expense. On the second day, fierce winds fanned the fires and they jumped graded breaks created the night before and spread out of control.
Tulka residents were forced to flee their homes and jump into the sea for safety. Fortunately no lives were lost. Of the 48 homes in the settlement, seven were totally destroyed.
This time, with nine people killed, 80,000 hectares burnt, 30,000 sheep killed and 80 homes destroyed, the stakes in the blame game are much higher. From the devastation I saw on the Tuesday afternoon, it is amazing more people were not killed.
This week, the mood of Eyre Peninsula residents has swung from shock and despair into anger at what is being seen as a management failure to get on top of the fire in the critical early stages.
It is believed to have been sparked on Monday afternoon by a visitor who drove his car through thick swamp grass on a property north east of Wangary, near Duck Lake. It is understood the grass became caught around the catalytic converter on his vehicle, a device which is part of the exhaust systems of cars running on unleaded petrol; it operates at extremely high temperatures.
Eight local CFS crews battled the fire through the night and bulldozed a fire break. However, as winds picked up overnight, the fire jumped the break in two places and burnt towards Wanilla - a town that was almost wiped off the map by the flames.
North Shields, about 12km north of Port Lincoln was also hard hit. The southern half of the caravan park was obliterated, houses were destroyed and high school teacher Helen Castle died in her home.
Many people on Eyre Peninsula have some connection to the five adults and four children who perished in the fires and the grief in the community is palpable.
Their main criticism is that more should have been done on Monday afternoon, through that night and in the early hours of Tuesday - including the use of CFS waterbombers. Fires were burning in the Adelaide Hills and the South-East at the time and there is a belief here that they were given preference because of the higher population density in the Hills and an arrangement between the CFS and forestry companies in the South-East, which have helped fund one of the State's waterbombers.
The CFS hierarchy has hit back, with its chief officer Euan Ferguson stating that "At no time were local firefighters on the fireground asking for aircraft". He said once they were requested they were in the air as soon as possible.
Waterbombers are most useful in the early stages of a bushfire. Once it starts burning over a wide front and moving at terrific speeds, as the fires here did, the main use of waterbombers is only to put out spot fires ahead or behind the front. The CFS waterbomber did not arrive at Coffin Bay airport until the early afternoon. In the meantime, Cummins-based aerial spraying contractor Kevin Warren, his son Tony and employee Derek Hayman took to the air on Tuesday on their own initiative, having twice been knocked back by the CFS office in Port Lincoln.
They dropped water on a number of homes and believe they saved two lives by protecting a home in North Shields. "We could not stay on the ground because these people (hit by the fires) are our friends, our customers, our neighbours," said Kevin's wife, Margaret.
The official CFS line is that the local incident controller at the fireground was the only one responsible for making the critical decisions about what resources were or were not needed. It is extremely difficult to find out who was that person (or persons), but given the furore now raging, it is understandable that they do not want to put a hand up and cop the blame - fairly or unfairly.
It is worth noting that on Monday, firefighters were working without the benefit of a spotting plane to give them a bigger picture of what was happening, and throughout the disaster communications were hampered by the poor performance of the Government Radio Network.
If responsibility for such weighty decisions about resources are only borne by the leading volunteer or volunteers on the ground, then it is an indictment of the CFS bureaucracy.
Given the extreme weather forecasts for the next day, the fuel load of trees and stubble, the fact that a fire was already burning on a sizeable area of land, the past experience at Tulka and the exposure of southern EP to very strong winds, a decision could have been made by the full-time, fully-paid officers of the CFS in Port Lincoln or Adelaide to send waterbombers and other extra resources to the peninsula, at least in readiness.
It is not good enough for CFS management to hide behind statements that any criticism of the firefighting effort is disrespectful to those volunteers who did put their lives on the line. These are country people speaking out - it is their husbands, brothers and sons who go out to fight the fires and they are extremely proud of them and grateful for their efforts.
Local CFS members do not want to speak out publicly because of recriminations they might attract, but off the record they say they are just as distressed about the way the fire was handled as anyone else.
There are now 20 police investigators based at Port Lincoln and their work is expected to take months, ahead of a coronial inquiry. Moreover, on January 19, the CFS had two waterbombers and a spotter plane on standby at Port Lincoln airport, as burnt trees still smouldered and hot, windy weather conditions returned.
In the meantime, there are reports that a landholder who lost his farm and his friend in the fires is planning to sue the CFS.
As well as anger about the response to last week's fire, there is also a fear among residents that next time the forces of nature conspire to produce the perfect conditions for a bushfire to take off on Eyre Peninsula, even more lives will be put at risk.
During the Tulka fire, one of the fronts spread towards Port Lincoln and threatened homes on its southern outskirts. Last week, the fire came frightfully close to the northern edge of the town, which is only minutes away from North Shields.
The popular holiday village of Coffin Bay is particularly vulnerable. There is only one exit road, which leads north and it is edged by thick scrub. The road south leads into the Coffin Bay National Park, which is only accessible to experienced four wheel drivers and could well be the source of a blaze anyway. Although the town has a long shoreline, residents would have to get through the thick corridor of vegetation between the Esplanade and the beach. Many of the town's residents are elderly and there are plenty of fibro and wooden houses.
"Tulka was strike one, North Shields was strike two, where is strike three going to be?" Margaret Warren asked. "We have nine reasons to stand up about this and hopefully the CFS will learn."
