Firefighter group hits back at “wild claims” and “fear mongering” over transmission lines and fire risk

“Wild claims” that fire fighters will not attend fires on properties hosting power lines that form part of a contested transmission network upgrade in regional Victoria have been called out as “disingenuous” and “potential misinformation,” after a fresh round of reporting on the subject.

Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance issued a statement on Monday in response to multiple news reports that some volunteer firefighters in Victoria’s rural west would not would attend a fire on a property crossed by the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector (VNI) West high voltage transmission line.

The reports, mostly doing the rounds this week on country radio, including in Swan Hill and Horsham, are based on the now oft-repeated claims of sixth generation Gre Gre North farmer Jason Barratt, a volunteer fire fighter who is captain of the Traynors Lagoon Fire Brigade.

Barratt, who is also spokesperson for the Firefighters Against Renewables Over Victoria, shared with regional radio stations and local paper on Monday the same message reported by ABC Rural last month:

“There’s absolutely no way [we would] attend a fire on a property crossed by the VNI west high voltage transmission line.”

The comments were also picked up and repeated in state parliament by Victorian Liberal MP Bev McArthur:

“These brigade volunteers come from communities which will bear the brunt of the government’s rushed, incompetent efforts to implement its 95 per cent renewables target by 2035 and of its inexplicable attachment to [VNI West],” McArthur said here on July 01.

“Will the Minister for Emergency Services simply acknowledge, as the brigades demand, that high-voltage lines are potentially lethal in wildfire scenarios, that they jeopardise firefighter and community safety and that powering down 500 kilovolt transmission lines during wildfire events is not a realistic protection mechanism?”

Barratt has, in the past, also extended the claim to “any renewable infrastructure or projects” – as he told the ABC last month.

“Any renewable infrastructure or projects, we’re just going to refuse to fight fires in and around them,” he said.

As the ABC reports, Firefighters Against Renewables Over Victoria is calling for an immediate halt to “all current and proposed projects” and “appropriate reconsideration of alternative solutions,” which Barratt says should include nuclear power.

Barratt and his co-signatories from five different brigades across the region said VNI West would “greatly impact” the ability of emergency responders to control fires from the ground and the air.

“We’re worried about our ability to fight fires around transmission lines and the [Country Fire Authority] hasn’t been very good at all at giving us clear instructions on how safe it is to fight fires around them,” he told the ABC in June.

But Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance says this is not true, and that the Country Fire Authority (CFA) is actually very clear on the subject.

“No one is suggesting that fire fighters work next to a fire front passing under a high voltage power line,” AFCA spokesperson Cam Walker said on Monday.

“In fact, CFA protocols dictate that crews should not work close to a fire passing under these lines. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous and potentially constitutes misinformation.

“Some anti renewables campaigners who are also firefighters have made similar claims around wind turbines. But again, standard practise is to stand back a safe distance from an elevated fire and to contain any spread of flames from falling debris.

“It is disappointing to see these sort of wild claims,” said Walker. “As with any tall structure, there are protocols regarding how firefighting occurs around high voltage power lines, and refusing to attend a fire near these lines would potentially put the community at risk.”

Confusion and obfuscation over this issue has also been addressed by RE-Alliance, which has published a detailed explainer on the risk of fire around transmission lines, here.

The explainer also shares links to other resources, including AusNet’s ‘Managing fire risk – electricity transmission network’; CFA’s ‘Fighting fires around transmission lines’; Energy Networks Australia’s ‘Bushfire factsheet’, and; Powerlink’s ‘Fires and transmission line safety’.

As RE-Alliance explains, the risk of transmission lines starting a fire is extremely low, with only two instances where transmission lines have been verified as causing a fire in recent decades.

And it quotes former Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner and veteran firefighter Greg Mullins as saying that taking extra precautions around higher-risk infrastructure during fires is part and parcel of the job – and transmission lines are “nothing new.”

“Any new structure brings a fire risk that must be considered in the approvals process,” says Walker. “But compared with many activities in agricultural areas, there is no additional or novel risk attached to a fire around a power line. 

“The first high voltage overhead lines in Victoria were built in the 1950s. We have decades of experience working around this type of infrastructure and to suggest that VNI west lines would constitute a new risk is just fear mongering.”

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