Safety concerns over town’s bushfire evacuation

A ONE-MAN protest threatened to bring an evacuation fire drill in the Otways to a standstill.

Lavers Hill teacher Kate Doherty leads pupils to waitng buses.

A ONE-MAN protest threatened to bring an evacuation fire drill in the Otways to a standstill.

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Carla Okai moved from Geelong to join The Colac Herald team in June 2010. She studied journalism at RMIT University before travelling and working overseas. She gained experience in television and radio newsrooms in Ghana, West Africa. Carla covers Colac and district news ranging from emergency services and health to aged care and the arts. She also writes the Herald's Your Weekend page.

Comments

  1. Far better story regarding this to be found here http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/11/18/3370728.htm highlighting actual problems with the drill and giving the community a real idea of what went wrong.
    shame on you colac herald for not even mentioning the fact that the pager messages didnt go out on time – perhaps the difference between life and death in a real fire.

  2. Great idea to evacuate the kids, but i have a question. In theory the kids could be at the beach at Johanna for hours if they were evacuated – wouldn’t it make sense for them to have taken their school bags (a food supply each) and water bottles with them? Perhaps have suitable clothes kept at school for each child too – as opposed to summer dresses and shorts which we all know are extremely inappropriate in a fire situation.
    Also curious to know how long it would take for buses to get to the school in a real evacuation as for this fake evacuation they were ready and waiting.
    I’m also betting the road wasn’t clogged with other residents trying to get out…although i particularly like Mr Wyld’s tree imitation.
    It was a nice idea, but too politically correct to have worked properly

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