RUSSELL Rees did his "very, very best", writes PETER HUNT

Put yourself in Country Fire Authority chief Russell Rees' shoes for a moment.

It's 11.49am, February 7, 2009. Your team of 22,000 active firefighters is already battling to control hundreds of fires across the state.

By the end of the day, CFA brigades will have been called out to 592 grass and bushfires, 263 structure fires and 156 false alarms.

As always, the CFA volunteers are doing what they do best - putting out fires before they get out of hand.

Then a call comes in that a grass fire at Saunders Rd, Kilmore East, has taken off. By 2pm it has jumped the Hume Hwy.

By 2.13 burnt leaves are raining down on the Kangaroo Ground fire tower as the winds gust to 70km/h and the temperature hits 43 degrees.

Just before 3pm, there's a call for another fire at the Murrindindi Mill, put under Department of Sustainability and Environment command.

The first DSE crew arrives at 4.15pm, to face a 20m wall of flames from a fire travelling at 12km/h and spotting 15km away.

It's now that things start to fall apart.

For the first time since 1983, the CFA has to turn from being a fire-fighting agency to an information agency able to quickly assess and warn of public risk.

But unlike 1983, this time the number of lives under threat is vast and spread along Melbourne's peri-urban fringe.

The speed of the fire's spread is incomprehensible.

The CFA/DSE command and emergency communications systems were never designed to deal with the rapid response needed for this looming disaster.

The CFA simply doesn't have the capacity to recover, assess and communicate the risk these fires pose to people in their path.

The triple-0 system collapses and ABC radio is struggling, issuing outdated information.

People are being warned to implement their fire plans. What fire plans? Many sit and wait, watching the flames, in the belief they can escape if things get bad.

In the end 173 lives are lost and you're dragged before a Royal Commission to explain why the system failed.

Why?

Because it was Victoria's greatest natural disaster. No one, absolutely no one, was prepared for a disaster of that scale, ferocity and speed.

One response that Mr Rees gave under cross-examination by Counsel assisting the commission Jack Rush sums it up: "All I can say, Mr Rush, is we did our very, very best."

It's easy to blame Russell Rees for the failings of Black Saturday.

But to his credit he hung on as fire chief, answered the questions, tried to help repair the system and has now moved on.

As Premier John Brumby said last week, quitting last year in light of the Royal Commission's criticism would have been the "easy" option for Mr Rees.

Thank you Mr Rees for doing your best, in the worst of times.

  • Peter Hunt is a senior Weekly Times reporter.