World News - Australia - State Coroner accuses Fire department of FUBAR

Coroner slams CFS over fatal bushfires

The Country Fire Service (CFS) failed to take adequate measures to minimize the impact of the Eyre Peninsula bush fires that killed nine people, a South Australian coroner has found.

Deputy state coroner Anthony Schapel on Tuesday handed down his findings after a long-running inquiry into the January, 2005 bushfires that burnt about 80,000 hectares of land on the lower Eyre Peninsula and caused more than $100 million in damage.

Mr Schapel was critical of the CFS handling of the fires and said many public warnings were mistimed and not particularly appropriate for the locations at which they were directed.

He said communications between CFS staff in Port Lincoln and the state headquarters in Adelaide were inadequate at the beginning of the fires and not enough pre-emptive steps were taken to battle the blaze including backburning and fire breaks.

"The fact of the matter was that no adequate measures were put in place or attempted which meant that opportunities to alter the outcome were not taken," Mr Schapel said at the Port Lincoln racecourse.

"Because the risks to the public was never properly addressed or appreciated, none of those measures were ever adequately considered.

"For the same reason no adequate warning was given."

Mr Schapel said the CFS had since improved its fire warning system and communication strategies.

The deputy Coroner confirmed the fire was started by sparks coming from a faulty exhaust on a car driven over dry vegetation at Wangary