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By Michael Esposito

9th March 2010 11:05:34 AM

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Bares the truth ... Sandra Lackas.

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DEFICIENCIES in Victoria’s fire reduction policy were again highlighted at the royal commission last week.

The commission heard that Upper Plenty resident Sandra Lackas, whose late husband Stephen was the first fatality of the Kilmore East fire on Black Saturday, told investigators that no burning had been done near her property in the past 10 years.

In her statement, read out at the commission last week, Ms Lackas said: “Over the past 10 years I have been contacting the Mitchell Shire Council, Broadford Department of Sustainability and at times the Wangaratta DSE in regards to fuel reduction burns. I would call them every year as my concern increased as the leaves and fuels in the forest built up over the years.

“There was never any reduction burn adjacent to our property and I would get excuses about the weather not being right for a burn, or they would say the greenies were on their back not to do the fuel reduction burns.”

Ms Lackas told investigators that she believed the fire would have not been as severe if fuel reduction burns were done every seven years.

At a commission hearing last month, DSE’s fuel reduction program manager Liam Fogarty said the organisation didn’t have the resources to increase burns, despite identifying the need for the number of hectares burned to be doubled.

In a statement to Star, a DSE spokesman said: “DSE is committed to its planned burning program and this autumn has already started to build on the more than 400,000 hectares it has treated over the last three years.”

Last month, the commission heard that up to 450,000 ha per year were cleared during the 1980s, about three times the current amount.

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