Despite the extreme threat of grassfires across Wyndham this summer, a report has found the city does not need a Neighbourhood Safer Place (NSP), which would provide a last-resort shelter for people in immediate danger.
The report, presented to Wyndham council last Monday night, followed a risk analysis by the Wyndham Municipal Fire Management Planning Committee.
It determined that grassfires, rather than bushfires, posed the most significant threat, and the current mitigation strategies lowered the likelihood of these affecting the community to the extent which would demand an NSP.
The CFA Act was recently amended to require all councils to consider NSPs, which are designed for use during a bushfire and for people whose other plans have failed.
In Wyndham, only Mount Cottrell was identified in the report as being at major risk of being impacted by grassfires.
The planning committee recommended against introducing an NSP in Wyndham due to the lack of bushfire threat in the municipality, the minimal distance to retreat from rural to urban areas and the council- enforced 30-metre firebreak around towns during the fire danger period.
It was also considered that introducing an NSP in Wyndham would cause people travelling towards it to gridlock local roads, blocking access for emergency services.
Harrison ward councillor Glenn Goodfellow, a CFA volunteer, said the decision not to introduce an NSP in Wyndham was justified.
“The best thing in the event of a significant grassfire in Wyndham is to go two streets back; that’s your designated safe place,” he said.
