LAST Tuesday was a taste of the forthcoming summer bushfire season.
At least six different fires burned on a day of Total Fire Ban in locations surrounding the Dandenongs.
Census information reveals thousands of residents live in the Dandenongs between Wellington Road in the south and Coldstream in the north.
All depend upon narrow, often winding, two-lane roads to escape in the event of disastrous fires.
These they must share with CFA and other emergency vehicles, plus visitors who often choke roads in their curiosity.
Lycra-clad cyclists exercising in the hills add to the traffic mix.
It has been estimated it would take several hours for residents to get to safety by car, if all went well.
Meanwhile, depending upon wind speeds, the fire front could spread, as it did on Black Saturday, 15km in six minutes.
I and my wife have lived in the hills for 45-plus years and would live nowhere else on at least 355 days per year.
Those 10 other extreme fire danger days must be acted upon.
We both evacuate our home on extreme fire danger days as early as 7am.
Every hills resident owes a duty to their family and themselves to become involved in local Fire Guard groups.
Every resident should have developed a written and practiced fire plan for their home and family.
Government must act to eliminate motorists and cyclists from entering the hills on days of acute fire danger and especially Code Red alert days.
Road blocks need to be established at Upper Ferntree Gully, Montrose, Lilydale, Beaconsfield, Lysterfield and Belgrave South.
Have a safe fire season.
Roger Willsher,
The Patch.
