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Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release  Thursday, 10 January 2013

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au
 

Isherwood: Fight Australian bushfires from the air, not with hot air!

As we witness the recurring devastation of many regions of Australia from ferocious wild bush fires, Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood called for a massive upgrading of Australia’s aerial fire-fighting ability to attempt to stop these wildfires in their tracks.

“Nearly every year,” Mr Isherwood said, “we witness the unwarranted destruction of life and property from bushfires, and yet we still use the same methods. Whilst our local professional and volunteer fire-fighters do a heroic and selfless service in fighting these fires, it sickens me to learn that they are not being fully supported by government.

“One could almost set one’s diary from January to March to watch streams of politicians sympathising with victims of these fires like in Dunalley on the east coast of Tasmania, but this is a cheap effort, as the real work has not been done.”

Mr Isherwood said: “I still marvel at ‘Elvis’, the Sikorsky/Erickson S-64 Air-crane that Victoria leases every year from California. This magnificent piece of machinery, vital to our fire-fighting here in Victoria, can carry 9,500 litres of water to a fire, and dump it where required. But as Geoffrey Luck pointed out in The Australian newspaper on 7 January, there are even better aircraft, known to our government, available for the purpose—aircraft that have become the standard aerial fire-fighters in 10 countries already, and would be available here for our fire-fighters to use.

“The argument Australian politicians put against using them here, amounts to the same stupid ‘gold-plating’ argument the same pea-brains use against investing in electricity,” Mr Isherwood said.

“Well, it is time for some gold-plating. When we place any of our troops in harm's way and on the front lines, whether they be within our defence force or out fighting the ferocious Australian bushfires, it is the moral responsibility of our leaders to make sure they have the best possible equipment to protect themselves, and the lives and property which they are fighting to protect.

“Therefore, why haven’t we established a fleet of the Canadian Bombardier 415 water bombing aircraft? Of these aircraft, a number operated in Canada are apparently available for lease during our bushfire season and their northern winter, now.

“At $35 million each to buy, compared to the enormous economic damage wrought on Australian’s economy, these would be a cheap option.

“Unlike the fire-fighting movie star ‘Elvis’, which takes one minute to load 9,500 litres of water, can only fly at 100 km/h, and has to refuel every three hours, the Bombardier 415 high-wing twin-turboprop aircraft takes just 12 seconds to scoop up 6,137 litres from any lake, river or ocean, at a speed of 130 km/h, and can then fly to a fire at 300 km/h. Given that Dunalley is not even four kilometres from the ocean (in fact many residents ran into the ocean to survive the fire that burnt down to the ocean’s edge) and that the Bombardier can dump 80,000 litres an hour within a 4 kilometre radius, it is likely that most of the town could have been saved using this technology!”

[Click here to see the Bombardier 415 in action.]

Mr Isherwood added, “We quite often see helicopters with a 1,000 litre bucket attached fighting our fires. Whilst useful in a very limited way, the reason these are used is not for overall effectiveness, but because they are cheap. It doesn’t cost much to attach a bucket below a helicopter.”

Mr Isherwood said a CEC government would immediately move to purchase 20 of these aircraft (rising to 50), and have fleets of them and their personnel stationed in every state within Australia. Over the life of these aircraft, the net economic value would far outweigh the cost in human lives and economic damage that the phenomenon of the Australian bush fire causes. They would be purchased through a National Bank credit issue as they represent protection for basic economic infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, we will never not have bush-fires in Australia,” he concluded. “I hope that we also never have any more hot air from Australian politicians who fail to act on such a clear and effective fire-fighting option.”

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