An accidental internet bushfire alert warning Colac district residents their lives were in danger has exposed a flaw in the system.
Fire authorities mistakenly uploaded an alert onto the Country Fire Authority’s public website that a large bushfire was threatening Barwon Downs and towns further south and east.
The warning was meant to appear on the CFA’s internal website as part of a training exercise.
But the alert, which appeared for 26 minutes from 11.34am Wednesday, did not alarm residents, with most unaware of its existence.
The bungle has raised questions around whether the internet is effective in delivering urgent bushfire messages to the public.
Barwon Downs general store owner Vikki Lees was unaware of the internet alert.
“No one around here was aware of it,” Ms Lees said.
“I’m sure that it would’ve given us a big fright,” she said.
Ms Lees said the internet was unlikely to provide the first news of a bushfire in the area.
“Word travels pretty fast,” Ms Lees said.
“We have the CFA up around the corner and there’s a warning device at the fire shed and that lets us all know.”
Barwon Downs CFA captain Gavin Brien said residents were unlikely to access the CFA website unless alarmed.
“People aren’t looking for it at the moment,” he said.
“It’s raining down here at the moment, so it doesn’t feel like fire season.”
Mr Brien was not aware of the alert and said firefighters’ pager system was separate from the CFA website.
Representatives of the CFA, Department of Sustainability and Environment, police, Colac Otway and Corangamite shires and Barwon Water were taking part in a mock emergency exercise at Colac’s DSE offices at the time.
The mock blaze began at Wickhams Track near Barwon Downs and, fanned by 26-degree weather between 60 and 80kmh northerly winds, spread south towards Skenes Creek and Wye River.
A south-easterly change then put residents between Lorne and Deans Marsh on alert.
DSE district fire manager Stephanie Ryan said the exercise tested authorities’ communication systems, traffic management strategies and understanding of a bushfire’s behaviour.
“It’s a major fire that has impacts across a range of land tenures and communities, to public and private land and it’ll impact on communities such as Lorne,” Ms Ryan said.
“It enables us to test systems in our ICC and our links to DSE and CFA offices,” she said.
“And everyone gets familiar with the changes that have occurred in the last year.”