By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA Ranges Police have warned visitors and residents alike to be careful around public barbecues or risk potential jail time, after people recklessly threw away burning fuel near Silvan last month.
Yarra Ranges Acting Inspector Paul van Gemert, Lilydale CIU Detective Leading Senior Constable Bridgette De Chirico and Parks Victoria Dandenong Ranges Area Manager Matthew Hoogland gathered at the Silvan Reservoir Park last week to issue a reminder to people about fire safety during summer.
Det LSC De Chirico said the meeting followed a number of fires that had started in the area, caused by people dumping hot fire-beads used for barbecues when leaving the park.
She said the beads were left by the side of McKillop Road in December, while another was in a garden bed, close to wooden sleepers.
“We want to bring home a message that, whether people intend to cause a bushfire or recklessly cause a bushfire, the same penalty applies in the courts,” Det LSC De Chirico said.
She said that recklessly causing a bushfire carried a maximum 15-year jail sentence, and that a number of related offences can also follow.
“If a person is sentenced for recklessly causing a bushfire, they can expect a term of imprisonment,” she said.
Act Insp van Gemert said that, of the 4600 bushfires lit in the last fire season, 21 of those were accidental and started by campfires or power tools and that six people were charged as a result.
He said the heavy penalties under the law were because accidentally-lit fires and arson fires had the same result – property damage, serious injury or death.
While people are able to use their own barbecue facilities in areas such as Silvan Reservoir Park, no flames are able to be lit – including on barbecues – during days of total fire ban.
Mr Hoogland said the parks’ carry-in, carry-out policy applied to fire beads and barbecue fuels, as they were unable to be disposed of on-site, and it was visitors’ responsibility to have appropriate containers.
“We are investigating providing facilities around disposal, but we don’t have them in place, so it doesn’t give people the right to effectively start fires,” he said.
“There is the potential for it to burn unchecked and unnoticed, and head into the bush where it’ll be uncontrollable, and that’s something we don’t want.”
For information on Fire Danger Ratings and Total Fire Bans, visit www.cfa.vic.gov.au.
