At 7pm on 27th December, a cool change meant the main fire run could be contained among the western rural subdivisions of the townsite. A number of people were evacuated, while others elected to remain with their properties.
The fire was said to be within 15 minutes of breaching Bridgetown's town boundaries and the Hospital was put on evacuation alert.
Public Communication Facts for December 27.
- The ABC TV and Radio was broadcasting cricket out of Melbourne, hence Bunbury was off-air.
- Win Television was also being remotely broadcast from the Eastern States.
- GWN was being broadcast from Perth so Bunbury was off air.
- Radio West and Hot FM were robotically broadcast from NSW and Queensland.
- A Bridgetown local had 3 radios tuned to all 3 stations and never got one message through about the fire.
- The phone lines went down in the fire region.
- The power failed in affected areas.
- There was no community networked warning system available.
The Fire we always knew would one day be on our doorsteps arrived for Christmas on the 27of December 2003. Unfortunately your community radio had yet to go on air and public communication was realised to be lacking.
The fire started around noon Dec 27, under powerlines in the Southampton pine plantation and quickly advanced Southeast towards Bridgetown, under very strong Northwest winds estimated to be 80 klm gusts..
More than 4,600 hectares have been burnt, of which approximately 3,000 hectares is private property. A number of private and government owned plantations were amongst the damage and assessment for timber salvage operations has commenced. The damage estimates are for about 1,200 hectares of both private and government plantations, mostly pine. Two houses were lost as well as stock, outbuildings and fences.
At its peak fire crews and volunteer fire brigades managed to consolidate fire boundaries along the 51 kilometre perimeter of the fire.
Bush fire brigade crews came from as far away as Waroona, Mandurah and Murray to support the local crews. The CALM crews included locals from Blackwood District and others ranging from Geraldton and Jurien in the north to Pemberton and Walpole in the south.
More than 20 fire units and eight heavy machines were utilised in a fire
that threatened the Bridgetown townsite late on the afternoon of the 27th.
Over 180 personnel were involved in fighting the fire
during the first day and night shift. This fire quickly advanced along 4 fronts
towards Bridgetown.
Strong north-west winds gusting up to 80km an hour and extreme fire behaviour escalated the head fire toward Bridgetown. Six water bombers were deployed to assist with protection of property and containment.
Photo: taken by Debbi Gugeri from Lauren Brook Winery looking west.
Where are we Currently?
Bridgetown's current communication strategy and status is considered non existent as was proven by the outcome of numerous fire control meetings, in response to this catastrophic fire.
We should be on Air ASAP
The only comfort people have in times of emergency is to know something about what is taking place and or what to do next.
The only tool we have when the power goes off or the telephone is out is to turn on a portable radio or the radio in a vehicle.
Community Radio may seem like a luxury to some yet in today's reality it is an essential service similar to the water used to quench the fire.
Information used in this documents was taken from documents within Calm's (Conservation and Land Management) website. For further information please go to:
http://www.calm.wa.gov.au/search/search.cgi?Range=All&Format=Standard&Terms=**bridgetown+fire**