I think your views are warranted. I dont think they are being put on the correct thread though. You can have your cause and im sure many will contribute constructively to it if it is another thread altogether. Something like, "How can we learn and what for the future?"
You appear to be speaking from a very qualified position and what has happened tyo you and your family and lost ones would be enourmously difficult for any of us to imagine. The thread you have tapped into may be the trees obscuring the forest, if you get me.
TO Victorians and ANYONE in a car anywhere near the flames: I was a volunteer firefighter and served for 7yrs fighting firse near the QLD NSW border - Border ranges National Park. I learned something that was profoundly helpful: Our rule was that if there was a fire suspected to reach us within a hundred kms from our homes or community, we should carry buckets full of soaking wet hesian sacks. If you cant get them, tear blankets - woolen ones. The flames are stamped out by the blanket with relative ease and it prevents spot fires and reignition. Often the water you spray is just evaporated in a second and that same amount of water in a wet blanket can go for a half an hour. And it can help you get through a small fire before it flares up.
I have a bad feeling that a lot more destruction can come at the drop of a hat and everyone should be bucketted up with sacks just in case. Theres still a hell of a lot of bushland out there.
